A tale of arrows and pale skin
by Asit Sparkle
Summary: Rated M for language, innuendo, and subtext only Ships/ pairings: Loki/ Clint, non-con Clint/ Steve, complicated Steve/ Clint hints at Thor/ Jane, pos many others. Spoilers: a tiny Thor spoiler in description of au other than that, none. AU/ other: making my AU as I go along, just roll with it, for the record I have no idea where this is going or if there will be a happy ending.
1. Archers, periods, and pale skin

Set in an alternate universe where Thor was never banished, Loki is Odin's son and, connections between Midgard and Asgard are far better. Homosexuality is banned on Asgard, punishable by death or worse, poor Loki is dumbfounded by the openness of Midgard, and soon finds himself in the arms of a close friend of Thor's, an agent from S.H.I.E.L.D, a player who takes advantage of Loki's innocence. They are soon inseparable, knowing full well the risks and dangers for the both of them, the ultimate forbidden fruit, with poor Thor stuck in the middle, trying to keep the huge secret from his family and stopping Loki from getting hurt, as the mysterious agent isn't as reliable as he seems, and as if this isn't enough, a third party is introduced, with the arrogant Steve, who will do anything to get with Clint…

"Thor!" Loki slammed the laptop shut, a thing he had 'acquired' from Midgard, he had been fascinated by certain websites, on Earth it seemed 'anything' really did 'go'.

"What do you want?" He said, trying to keep his voice innocent.

Thor regarded Loki with curiosity and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing, Never mind." Thor turned and walked out, shutting the door behind him.

Loki breathed a sigh of relief and re-opened his laptop, if anyone found out… Loki shuddered at the thought. Just at that moment Thor burst through the door, taking Loki by surprise, making him jump.

"Is something wrong brother?"

Loki slammed the laptop shut far less subtly this time and talked quickly.

"No, no, everything is fine, I'm awesome, thanks for asking, I'm great, bye."

Thor walked slowly towards Loki's bed and raised his eyebrow again.

"I know you brother, what are you hiding?"

"Nothing." Loki shuffled the laptop behind him

This doesn't stop Thor grabbing the laptop and holding it out of Loki's reach.

"Tell me!" He shouts.

Loki grabs desperately for the laptop and shouts back.

"No, Thor! Give it back!"

"Not a chance, tell me Loki!" He speaks angrily, wanting to know just what his little brother has been up to.

"Nothing!" Loki squeaks, terrified at being caught red handed "It was just… research! I was looking up Midgard cultures!" This wasn't entirely untrue, that's what he had meant to do, but a rather compelling advert had lead him astray…

"O.k. then." Thor turned and walked away, laptop in hand.

"No!" Loki runs after him and tries to grab the laptop, shouting; "Give it back!"

"I'm not giving it back until you tell me the truth!"

"That is the truth!"

"LIAR!" Thor starts marching off again

"No! Look, it was just… something I shouldn't have been looking at." Loki looked at his shoes.

Thor chuckled, was that all? "What is it?"

"Nothing! Look, I was just curious, I didn't mean to, it was an accident, I was gonna leave it, I just couldn't help it, I'm sorry…" Loki continued rambling, desperate to provide an excuse as to why he was browsing what he had been browsing.

"Loki, tell me, or else." He says, looking slightly annoyed.

Loki's feet seemed to become the most interesting thing in the world to him as he spoke.

"It's something forbidden."

"And?"

"And… _very_ forbidden."

Thor looses his temper and shouts "AND?"

Loki flinched slightly, he very rarely got Thor that mad "I thought you'd tell."

"Tell who?"

"Father, and the others."

"About what?"

"Like I said, _very_ forbidden."

Thor sighs, ignoring him, and walks off with the laptop. Loki follows him and speaks.

"Where are you going with that?"

"None of your business."

"Please don't tell, _please._"

Thor stopped and turned to him "I don't understand! What is the very forbidden thing! If you tell me what it is, I won't tell!"

Loki glances at the laptop and lowers his head. Thor lifts the lid, Loki not stopping him, and looks at the open page. He shuts it quickly.

"Oh." Loki's head is still lowered.

"Please don't tell!" He blurts

"Wait… Loki… are you… gay?" Thor says, looking confused, Loki looks startled.

"No! I- No!" He shakes his head "No!"

Thor raises an eyebrow; "Yes."

"I- I…" He trails off "It's not my fault!" He hangs his head. "I know it's wrong, I do, I'm sorry, please don't tell!"

"Don't worry, I won't" Thor's gaze softens. "But I'm keeping the laptop."

Loki fiddles with the hem of his shirt "Why?"

"Because I say so."

Loki can't help but argue, "Why?"

Thor raises an eyebrow "Loki, go to your room."

"But-"

"Loki, I said go to your room"

Loki hangs his head and does as he's told, sitting on his bed, stupid Thor, not my fault, why shouldn't I have any fun? I didn't ask to be like this… He picks up a book and starts reading, tomes suddenly not seeming so interesting, meanwhile Thor is walking to Loki's room, sighing, he opens the door without knocking.

"Loki?"

Loki sits up and puts the book to the side, pouting at him.

"Yes Thor?"

Thor comes in and shuts the door, sitting beside Loki on his bed "Just checking on you."

"I'm fine, now get out."

Thor raises an eyebrow "I'm your older brother Loki" Loki sits up properly and looks at him.

"I don't care, you confiscated my laptop and sent me to my room, I am not best pleased with you, besides, my room, my rules."

Thor sighed. "I am still your older brother, plus you're lucky I won't tell" He stands up and walks to the door.

"Oh, and a guy named Clint is coming over, so stay out of it, deal?"

Loki smirked and raised an eyebrow "Oh really? Don't worry I won't tell."

Thor frowned "What- Oh, Gods no, he's a friend of mine!"

"Sure, sure, whatever you say" Loki waves him out.

"Stay out of it Loki!" He shouts.

"No need to get all defensive."

"Kids." Thor muttered quietly

"I am not a kid!' Loki protested, a nickname he particularly hated.

"shut up."

"I'm not!"

"Shut the hell up Loki and stay out of it" Thor shouted, slamming the door, he goes to his room.

Loki blinks, surprised he had worked Thor up that much, he decided to spy on Thor, he crept into the spare bedroom adjacent to Thor's room, and looked through a crack in the wall.

Thor throws himself on his bed and sighs again. The doorbell goes. "I bet that's Clint." he gets up and goes to the hall, with Loki waiting patiently in his spot.

Thor opens the door "Hey man!"

"Hey Thor!" Clint steps through the door. "How have you been?"

"Not bad myself, what about you?" Thor ushered him into the living room, directly in front of the hall.

"Fine, my shot's getting better."

"Good" He leads Clint to his bedroom, both of them sitting on the

bed.

Clint sighs "How's things"

It was Thor's turn to sigh "Fine, I guess…"

"What's wrong? Lady troubles?" He smirked.

"More like… brother troubles?"

Clint raised an eyebrow "Oh what did he do, steal your pudding, swap your shaving foam with whipped cream type thing?"

"Trust me, you don't wanna hear about it." Thor chuckles.

"Come on, tell me, I love your stories" Loki glares at him through the crack, _don't you dare_.

"Nah, it's stupid"

"Please?" Clint tries puppy dog eyes . "Your stories about your little brother are the best"

"Fine" Thor laughs, Loki gasps, he wouldn't…

"So basically, today I realised that Lok- " He was cut off by a knocking on the door. When Thor opens it Loki is leaning against the doorframe glaring.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Thor chuckles "What?" Clint is staring at the both of them, Loki raises his eyebrow.

"Care to share the little story you were about to tell?"

"Care to go to your room and stop spying on me?" He laughs

Loki glares harder "You can't boss me around, mom and dad aren't here"

Thor starts to get a bit pissed off "I'm your older brother, stay away from me."

Loki just continues glaring "Make me." Clint is still staring at them both.

Thor stands up and walks towards him angrily, with Clint stopping him just in time.

"Calm down, I'll tale care of him" Loki just folds his arms.

"What do you want?"

Clint leads him back to his room "Why can't you stay away from your brother for a minute? Seriously."

"Because I know exactly what he was about to say" Loki snaps at him.

Clint goes into Loki's room and shuts the door, folding his arms and raising his eyebrow.

"And what is that?"

"That's none of your business."

"I'll know sooner or later…"

"Well I should hope not, if you know what's good for you you'll stay out of other peoples business!" Loki starts to push him out the door.

"I'll know Loki, I promise" He chuckled.

Loki shoves him out of the door with a glare and slams it shut. He then curls up on his bed, furiously blinking back tears, he felt hurt, hurt that Thor would choose a friend over his little brother, hurt that Thor would betray him, hurt that he was being treated like a kid.

Clint walks back to Thor's room with a smirk. "What was that all about?"

"Little brother having lady problems" Thor lied, tiring of the conversation.

"Ah, I see, is it that hot chick, what's her name… Sif?"

"I think so… Anyway, how's… Natasha?"

Clint smirks, licking his lips "She's very good, phew, she really-" He stops himself "Yeah, she's fine."

Thor chuckles. "She really what?"

"She really needs to learn to bend over like a normal person" He smirks "I got a lovely view."

Thor laughs "Wow Clint, wow!"

"What? Dat ass man, dat ass… so what's that story you were gonna tell me?"

"What story?"

"You said earlier, 'I discovered Loki was-"

"Oh… yeah, I realised he… had lady problems and stuff…"

Clint raised an eyebrow "Stuff? Thor, you are a terrible liar."

Thor giggles and throws himself on his bed "It's stupid man, how's working for S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"Boring as hell, no jobs to do… come on man, tell me! I'm not gonna tell anyone!"

"It's nothing man, really."

"Come on, please?"

"I promised him I wouldn't tell, seriously." He jumps out of his bed and walks to the kitchen.

Clint follows him. "He wouldn't know, besides you were gonna say."

"Forget it man" Thor gets a beer without offering Clint one.

Clint collets a beer for himself. "Hey, I see, if you really don't trust me I'll leave it."

"It's not that I don't trust you, I promised the kid that's all" He laughed "Now he's gonna jump out of the fridge and tell me he's not a kid!"

Clint over- acts checking the fridge "See? No kid, just food."

"He has his ways you know."

Clint raises his eyebrow "I see, so, you're scared of your little brothers wrath? O.k., cool"

Thor sighed. "Lets just go back to my room." He walks towards his chambers, but then decides to make a quick stop at Loki's room, he knocks on the door.

"Go away!" Loki's voice is small.

"No." Thor says calmly, stepping in the room.

Loki is curled up on his bed, facing away from Thor. "Go be with your

stupid friend!"

Clint hears this and snorts and pulls at Thor. "Come on, leave him."

"We'll talk later." Thor says to Loki, leaving his space and shutting the door, he leads the way back to his room, Clint sighs and sits next to Thor.

"He's just throwing a tantrum because the spotlight isn't on him."

"Whatever, wanna go eat, or order pizza?"

"Pizza sounds good, I can lend you cash." Clint offered.

Thor throws Clint his phone "I want cheese" He uses his puppy eyes, nowhere near as good as his brothers. "Please."

Clint smirks and rings domino's, placing the order, before asking; "Kiddo want anything?"

"I'll go ask him." He stands and walks to Loki's room, he opens the door without knocking this time.

"Pizza?"

"I'm fine" Loki says in a small voice.

"Pepperoni it is." He shuts the door and goes back to his room.

"What does he want?"

"Pepperoni."

"'Kay." He orders it and hangs up. "It'll be half an hour." He sits, drumming his fingers and looking at Thor.

"Please?"

"Drop it Barton!"

"Jeez! Sorry!" He holds his hands up in defeat. "What do you wanna talk about?"

"I don't know… anything." Clint opens his mouth hopefully. "Apart from that."

Clint pouts "Fine." He sighs "How's Volstagg?"

"Good…. I'm bored… let's do something…"

The doorbell sounds. "That was fast."

"Very fast." Clint comments, Thor walks to the door. The pizza man hands him the orders.

"Whoa man, nice costume."

Thor raised an eyebrow and sighs, taking the pizza, Clint pays, and the deliveryman takes one look at Clint with his arrows and backs off.

"Laters dude." He runs off back to his car and drives off, Clint laughing the whole time.

"Come and eat!" Thor shouts to Loki, who doesn't come down.

Thor sighs and goes up to Loki's room, opening the door. "Come on, pizza's here."

"I don't want pizza with _him_"

"Who? Clint?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because?"

"I don't like him."

Thor sits on Loki's bed and extends his hand. "Don't be an ass, come on."

"I wouldn't want to ruin your fun, I'm just your kid brother." He sneers

"I don't want to go all big brother-y on you, now come on."

Loki stays rolled over, not wanting Thor to see he had been crying, his voice breaks slightly as he talks.

"Just go, I'm not hungry."

"Loki stop it, I know you're crying, I'm sorry, I didn't even tell him. Just come now or I'll eat your pizza."

"You eat it." He curls up tighter. "I just wanna sleep."

"I'm not asking you to come, I'm forcing you. Come, or I'll have to carry you over my shoulders." Thor crosses his arms. Loki doesn't move, he just sniffs a little.

"If you insist." Thor pulls the blanket away and throws Loki over his shoulder, walking towards the living room. Loki starts squirming.

"Thor! Put me down!" Clint stares as they enter the room, Thor simply throws Loki on the couch and starts eating pizza as though nothing ever happened. Loki sits, knees tucked under his chin, head down so you can't see his eyes, Clint raises and eyebrow and flicks his head in Loki's direction, looking at Thor.

"What? Hand me that beer." Clint does as he's told, eyebrow still raised. "What is it Clint?"

"Nothing." He smiles and starts attacking his pizza, in seconds he announces that he's finished.

"That fast?"

"Dude. Pizza. I was slowing down for you."

Thor laughs. "Whatever." Clint starts picking at Thor's pizza. "Hurry up!"

"Do not interrupt me while I'm enjoying my pizza." He gives Clint 'the' look. Clint holds his arms up in defeat.

"O.k., big guy." He sits, fidgeting in his seat.

"Archers." He mutters quietly.

"Nope, just me!" Clint says, poking his tongue out.

"Shut it Barton."

"Oooh, tetchy, someone's on their time of the month." Thor shakes his head and Loki chuckles from the couch, Clint shoots a smile in Loki's direction.

"See? Even Loki agrees!"

"Shut it, both of you." Thor tries giving them both the look, but while

his back is turned Clint starts making faces and Loki falls about, giggling,

Clint is grinning like an Olympic runner that's won a gold medal.

"Loki, you have to eat something." Thor sighs, stealing a piece of Loki's pizza, Loki nibbles on the point of one slice. Thor stands up and stretches.

"I'm finished."

"Finally!" Clint grins.

"Shut up." Thor throws a pillow at him.

"Real mature." Clint throws it back.

Thor says nothing, but throws it back harder, hitting him in the face.

"Hey! Don't take your period angst out on me!"

"Don't make me throw the couch at you Barton!"

"Whoa! Tampons are in the cupboard!" He claps his hand over his mouth.

"Seriously, stop it." Clint raises an eyebrow but stays silent. For a bit.

"Come on, let's go to your room."

"Fine, but if you start the tampons thing. I'll kick you out of the house."

Clint smirks. "Deal." Thor shakes his head and goes to his room, Clint follows, leaving Loki on the couch.

"Loki, wanna join?" Thor shouts.

"I'm fine!" He shouts back.

Thor shuts the door, and Clint slumps on a chair, Thor sighs.

"Urgh…. I'm full!"

"So… will you tell me now?"

"No."

"Pleeeeeease? He won't know!"

"I already told you, NO!"

"Come on, you were gonna!" Clint huffs.

"Yeah, but I've decided not to."

Clint tries his puppy dog eyes. "I won't tell."

"I said no."

"Killjoy." Clint mutters.

"Elf" Thor lies on his bed.

"Oaf."

"Jackass."

"Brute."

"Idiot."

"Coward." Clint says, knowing it'll it a nerve.

"Fuckbutt!"

Clint snorts. "That's the best you got? Fuckbutt? You'd know all about that Thor Odinson."

"Shut it, dickhead."

"Vaginabrain."

Thor chuckles. "Kiss my ass."

"No thanks, your brother does enough of that for you."

"Shut up and get out, I have a headache."

Clint pokes out his tongue "Poor little princess! I tell you what, you tell me that story and I will."

"No. Get out."

"Come on, I'll tell you my secret!"

Thor sits up "What secret?"

"You gottah say first."

"You know my story is about Loki, now tell me about yours and stop being such a child!"

"It's about me… and a person from S.H.I.E.L.D…"

Thor raises an eyebrow. "What's _her_ name?"

"You first."

"Tell me yours and I promise I'll tell you mine."

"You'd better…" He sighs. "Alright, it's me and Steve."

"You and Steve what?" Thor said, completely missing the point.

Clint waggles his eyebrows. "What is it Barton?"

"We totally screwed!" Clint proclaims, looking smug.

"… You… and Steve…"

"Hells yeah! He's stupid, but damn, he's hot."

Thor facepalmed. "What happened?"

"I got drunk, he was drunk, I started flirting, next thing I know I wake up in bed minus my pants." He shrugged.

"Oh lords…" Thor facepalmed again.

"Your turn hero." Clint smirked.

Thor sighed. "Come on." Clint prompted.

"Loki is…"

"Yeah?"

"He's… g-g-gay…"

Clint laughs. "Is that all? I thought he'd killed someone or something."

"It's kinda complicated, I dunno."

"Hey, come on, it's no big deal."

"Whatever, forget about it, I'll kill you if he learns you know." He raises an eyebrow.

"I'm not gonna say! So does that mean he's up for grabs? Wait, why is it complicated?" He fired off questions, curious.

"Whatever, just forget about it, okay?"

"No, come on, tell me, is he with a bloke?"

"No, I don't think so."

"So how's it complicated?"

"It's just complicated for him, he's young, and stuff." Thor didn't dare bring up the true reason; their family.

"So? I'm young and you don't see me being all shy!" Clint easily saw through Thor's lie.

"It's just him dude!"

Clint raised his eyebrow. "Just him? Riiiiight. Oh." The penny drops. "Is it

your family?"

Thor sighs. "Yeah… our family, well, I don't know what they would do if they knew…"

"Yikes, don't worry, I won't tell… man, you shoulda told me sooner."

Thor raised an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"Cos he's fucking hot."

"Clint, don't even think about it." Thor frowns. Clint's response is to smirk, a far- off look in his eye.

"I wonder if he's that pale all over…"

"What do you mean?" Thor sits up a bit.

"I mean, under all those clothes, even round his-"

"Clint! OUT! NOW!" He points at the door.

Clint smirks. "If you insist." He walks to the door. "I might check in on your brother." He dodges the pillow that's thrown at him and goes downstairs.

Thor sighs. "Stupid Archers."

Clint sits by the other boy, sympathising with him, he knew what it was like to grow up in a world that hates you, Clint sighed, he didn't usually let his feelings surface, he gets up quickly, going to the fridge. Loki suddenly wakes up, jolting from his sleep.

"Clint? What are you doing here?"

Clint jumps. "Shit. I'm just getting a beer!" He pulls one from the fridge.

Loki sits up. "O.k., where's Thor?"

"I guess he's asleep or something, he kicked me out, 'cos he had a headache."

"Huh, right." He stands and starts to walk towards the door. "Might go and pay him a visit.

"Don't, he's asleep… and pissed off…" Clint admitted.

"pissed off?" He sighs. "What did you do?"

"Erm… insulted him? Do you want a beer?"

Loki rolls his eyes. "Sure." Clint hands him a beer and they both sit down, Loki downing his fast. He sighs.

"I better talk to him, just… sit here, don't cause any trouble." He gets up again.

"What if I cause trouble?"

"Do you want both Odinson's mad at you?"

Clint raised his eyebrow. "I don't mind."

Loki smirks. "Well, you're brave I'll give you that."

"Give me what?" He smirked.

Loki raises an eyebrow. "It's called a compliment, you ever get one?"

"Nah." He laughs.

"I didn't think so." He grins. "You're not that bad, I dunno, you're alright."

Clint walks towards him. "You don't know a lot of things." He smirked.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "I like to think I know my fair share."

Clint puts his arms around his waist and grabs him. "Are you sure?"

Loki gasps nervously, backing off. "I- I- I'm not…"

"Not what?" Clint raised an eyebrow.

"Not, you know… gay."

"And who said I was gay?" He smirked.

"I- I, didn't m- mean-" He breaks off, looking at his feet.

Clint lifts Loki's face close to his and kisses him softly, Loki whimpers slightly, kissing him back, before pulling away.

"I can't."

Clint rubs Loki's cheek softly with his thumb and looks into his eyes.

"Why not?"

"Because. It's not allowed."

"It's o.k. Loki." Clint kisses him passionately, Loki kisses him back, before pulling away again.

"Please. I can't. Please." He begs, knowing sooner or later he won't be able to stop himself.

"I don't want to force you." He looks into Loki's eyes. "I'd better get going." Clint bites his lip and turns away. Loki wants so badly to call him back.

"I- I- I'm sorry, I would, it's just, you don't understand, the trouble I could get in."

Clint walks back toward Loki. "Let's go to your room." He whispers, leading him away, Loki follows nervously through the familiar halls and corridors, not passing a single thought to Thor, who was fast asleep in his room. When they get into Loki's room Clint pushes Loki against the door and kisses him hungrily, this time Loki can't stop himself and he kisses back, wrapping his arms around Clint's neck, Clint in turn starts kissing Loki's neck, making Loki moan a little.

"You don't want hickeys Loki, it'll get you in trouble, pretty boy." He whispers teasingly.

"You're an ass." He mutters, making no move to stop Clint.

Clint smiles and starts biting Loki's neck, first softly, then harder. Loki gasps and grips Clint's shoulders tightly. Clint bites Loki's earlobe and whispers in his ear.

"How does it feel, pretty boy?"

"Fantastic." Loki whispers, barely keeping his moaning under control. Clint smirks.

"We don't wanna wake your brother, pretty boy." He throws him onto his bed. Loki looks up at Clint, lust clearly betrayed in his eyes.

"I. Want. You." He says bluntly. Clint takes off his top.

"Shhhh." He bites Loki's neck again, shutting him up instantly. Clint takes off Loki's top, making him whimper, Loki pulls Clint on top of him, kissing him again. Clint kisses him back hungrily, eyes glancing at the clock.

"Shit!"

Loki tilts his head. "What's wrong?"

"I have to go." Clint runs his fingers through his hair. He stands and pulls on his shirt.

"Wanna pay me a visit anytime soon, you won't regret it, pretty boy." He licks his lips. Loki's eyes widen and he practically nods his head off.

"Good, now, don't I get a kiss before I leave?" he says in a hurry. Loki leans up and kisses him deeply.

"Good boy!" He leaves Loki's room and heads back to the tower where he works.

Loki sits in his bed and thinks, he feels exited, scared, but how would his family know? He pulls on his shirt, and completely forgetting about the bite marks on his neck, he walks to his brothers room, debating wither to tell him or not, he decides against it.

"Thor?"

"Hmm?" Thor says sleepily.

"Sorry, did I wake you?"

"No, I was just trying to sleep, what do you want?"

"Huh?" He thinks back. "Oh, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for being grumpy earlier."

Thor sits up. "Really?"

"Yeah, I was just being silly, sorry, do you forgive me?"

"It's O.K., just come in." Loki does as he's told and sits on the edge of the bed.

Thor gives him a weird look. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, why? Does something seem wrong?"

Thor raised an eyebrow. "Loki, I know you…"

"I'm fine! Honest!" A lot better than fine actually, he thought.

"If you sa- what the hell?" He notices Loki's neck.

Loki hand comes to the marks on his neck. "Oh, I- uh- fell asleep on a cushion on the couch, these must be imprints."

"Seriously?"

"Uh huh!"

"Loki…" Thor raises an eyebrow.

"It's true!"

"Fine." He lies back on the bed. "Did Clint leave?"

"Uh- I dunno, I mean he wasn't there when I woke up." _Calm down Loki… _

"O.k., is there something you want to talk about?"

"Not really…"

"If you don't have anything to talk about then I need to go back to sleep."

Loki looks a little sheepish. "Sorry, yeah."

"Take your laptop, it's annoying me." Loki scoops it up meekly.

"I'm- I'm going for a walk, O.K.?"

"O.k., oh and Loki?"

"Yeah?"

"Mom and dad are coming back next week." He shrugs. "Just so you know."

"Oh, o.k.… Thanks." He leaves, dumping his laptop in his room, didn't need that anymore…

Loki goes to the tower that he knows Clint works at, he didn't know if it were too early, but he needs to get out of the house, he presses the intercom.

"Hello?" Clint's voice sounds.

"It's me, can I come in?"

"Sure." The door buzzes and opens.

Loki walks in, little did he know this simple motion would introduce him to a whole new level of distress, would lead him down a very difficult path, that would force him to face problems he had never dreamt about, this simple act would push him down a course that would undoubtedly change his life forever and would most likely kill both him and, Clint.

Loki was lead up to Clint's room, looking around the big tower, mostly it was offices, an occasional workshop and what seemed to be briefing rooms, Loki tried to remember the way out.

The second they got in Clint's room however, all his logic was forgotten as Clint leans down and kisses him, grabbing him closer and wrapping his arms around his waist, making Loki gasp again.

"I don't want to intrude, I had to get out of the house and I didn't know where else to go." He whispered, knowing full well Clint didn't mind.

"Well…" He licks his lips, leaning closer to the smaller boy, who smiled shyly. "You can always come to me." He whispered.

Loki whimpered slightly, pulling Clint closer, looking dead into his eyes. Clint shoves Loki against the wall and starts biting his neck, Loki starts moaning again, louder this time.

"Did you get in trouble pretty boy?" He whispers, looking up at Loki for a bit. Loki shakes his head faintly.

"I told him I slept funny." Clint breathes heavily on Loki's neck and takes off his own shirt.

"Good." Loki grunts and looks at Clint, green eyes darkening. Clint bites his lip.

"Do you like that? Huh, pretty boy?" Loki nods ecstatically.

"Yes Clint." Clint kisses him hungrily, Loki kissing back hard, pulling him closer and pressing his hands on Clint's face. Clint throws him on the bed and rips off his shirt, literally. Loki gasps and throws it aside, leaning up to get Clint close again, Clint kisses him once, and then starts to work himself lower. Loki starts making little whimpering noises, shaking with pleasure.

"Fucking Hel Clint!" he jerks suddenly.

"Someone's getting exited." Clint giggled.

During the rest of the night, Loki decided that Clint wasn't such a jerk after all.


	2. If you're going to hell, keep going

In the morning, Clint wakes, finding Loki in his arms, he grins and starts rooting around for his boxers, trying not to wake Loki. Loki, being the stubborn type, wakes up anyway, looking down at the interesting array of bite marks over his body.

"Huh, so it wasn't a dream…"

"Good morning sunshine!" He beams "And no, it wasn't a dream." He laughs and pulls on his boxers. Loki smirks and hunts for his own clothes.

"Glad to hear it." He says, Clint looks at him, registering the bites.

"Sorry about the bites, I was… yeah…"

"It's fine, I rather enjoyed it." He pokes one, wincing slightly

"What are you gonna tell Thor this time?"

Loki bites his lip. "Well… he won't have to see me with my shirt off and he knows about most of the ones on my neck… I should be fine…" He looks at his ripped shirt. "Oh."

"Fuck man." Clint rubs the back of his neck. "I'll give you a shirt, it's O.K., but how are you gonna explain coming home at ten in the morning?"

"I don't know… oh crap my parents are coming home… shit, that's it, I'm dead, it's over." He falls back on the bed.

Clint laughs. "I thought your parents were coming next week, that's what your brother told me."

"Yeah, but these bites will take longer than a week to heal."

"So what are you gonna do?" He laughs.

"I have no idea, I am so dead, seriously, they'll know in seconds." He mutters, pacing the room worriedly.

Clint grabs him, sitting him down. "It's okay, I'll give you a shirt, and the bites on your chest, stomach, and, thighs, no one's gonna see them, except for me." He smirks.

Loki gives a small smile. "You're right, yeah, I'll just say… I fell over and scratched my neck." He still looked a little worried.

"Sounds good. And I'm pretty sure your brother is still asleep." He rolls his eyes.

Loki snorts. "Yeah, I should get back before he notices, don't you have work?"

"Yeah, I'll take a shower first, if anyone asks, tell them you were paying a visit to agent Clint Barton." He throws over his one of his shirts; black, short sleeved with a band logo on it.

"O.k." He smiles. "I'll see you later?"

Clint grins. "I'd better." He pulls Loki in for a kiss, grabbing him closer, Loki snakes his arm around Clint and kisses back. Clint smirks and pulls away.

"I don't want to be late for work and fired, pretty boy, I have work to do!"

Loki nods smiling shyly he pulls on the shirt. "What time do you get off work?"

"About seven thirty, you should visit me sometime." He winks.

"I shall." He smiles. "See you then."

"Bye pretty boy." He grins, Loki walks out, smiling broadly.

"Bye."

Clint shakes his head and walks to the shower.

"I'm so fired, it was worth it though." He says under his breath.

Loki creeps back to the palace, and breathes a sigh of relief, he goes to his room, showers, changes, although keeping Clint's shirt under his pillow, and walks downstairs as though nothing happened. Thor wakes after an hour and a half of Loki's return and goes downstairs.

"Morning."

"Good morning." He passes him some toast.

Thor takes the food. "How was your night? Did you sleep O.K?"

"Yeah, I suppose." He smiles thinking about the previous night.

"Mom and dad didn't come back yet, right?"

"I don't think so." Loki says. "I hope not." He adds.

"Good, anyway, I'll be out and I'll be back around midday-ish."

"Ah, I see, I might be out be out for a bit too." Loki thinks quickly.

"O.K then…"

Loki coughs and reaches for the day's schedule. "First up… swimming… hmmm" _I think not, not without a body suit…_ "Think I'll, uh, miss that, umm…"

Thor laughs. "You're still using the schedule? Have some fun while our parents aren't here!"

"If you say so." He snorts slightly into his drink.

"But fun in a good way." Thor raises his eyebrow.

Loki splutters a little. "I don't know what you mean."

"I mean, no… research… now excuse me, I'm going to take a shower." He walks to the bathroom. Loki sits, allowing his red cheeks to turn pale again, and wanders what to do with the day. A few minutes later there is a shout from the bathroom.

"Oh, Loki?"

"Yeah?"

"Barton might drop some of my stuff off, if he does before I get out, drop it in my room, yeah?"

"Will do." He smiles to himself.

Ten minutes or so later, there is a knock on the door. Loki opens it and smiles at Clint.

"Hey!"

"Hey Loki." Clint raises an eyebrow.

Loki grins. "I'm guessing you've got Thor's stuff."

"Yep." He lifts the box he was holding and plonks it into Loki's arms.

"Thanks." He puts it in the hall, he'll put it in Thor's room later. "D'you want coffee?"

"Oh, I better get back to work, I was lucky to keep my job!"

Loki laughs, "I'll see you later then." He begins to shut the door.

"Wait!"

"What?" Loki smirks at him. "If you want a kiss, I warn you, my brother could be out at any second."

Clint grins, bites his lip and whispers. "I told your brother, I'm busy tonight, I'm expecting your visit."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Great, see you later, pretty boy."

"Will do." He smiles shyly before pushing him outside and planting a kiss on his lips. Clint smirks and walks away. Loki smiles happily and walks back into the palace, where Thor is waiting.

'Hey, Clint dropped your stuff." He points at the box.

"Good." He takes the box to his room without another word. Loki fiddles with his hands, _only three- thirty_, he sighs. It was gonna be a long afternoon.

Clint accidentally bumps into Natasha in the tower. "Oh, hey, sorry about that…"

"Watch where you're going arrow boy!" A thing that looks suspiciously like a smile appears on her lips.

"Sorry." He says in a hurry.

"Where are you off to?"

"Boss' office, I have some unfinished paperwork."

"Ha, careful, he's not in a good mood." She walks off, hips swinging.

Clint finds himself staring, he shakes his head and walks away. "Am I straight or gay?" He mumbled under his breath.

Clint managed to finish his paperwork, and then headed back to his room, reading a few files. At seven thirty exactly there is a buzz on the intercom.

"Loki?" He says in a sleepy voice, tired from the work.

"Hey handsome, did I wake you?"

"Nah, come on in." He buzzes the door open.

Loki sighs. "You got a drink?"

"I guess there's some beer in the fridge you can have…"

"Ta." He helps himself to one.

Clint rubs the back of his neck and flops onto the bed. "I thought you weren't gonna come for a second."

"Why on Midgard would you think that?" He sits next to him gingerly.

"Because of the bites." He laughed.

Loki smirked. "Believe me, those are not a problem."

"Good." He pulls Loki by his shirt onto him and starts kissing, Loki kisses back, hands running through Clint's hair.

"Still didn't get in trouble yet?" He smirks into the kiss.

"Not yet." He smirks back. "I'm just waiting for the penny to drop."

"What do you mean?"

"He's not _that_ dumb, he's gonna figure out why I leave in the evenings and

Come back with bite marks… and then there's my parents…" Loki sighed, Clint shushed his worrying with another kiss, biting softly into his lip. Loki started making lots of little noises as Clint bit slowly down his body, and soon enough Clint made Loki forget his problems, if only for a little while.

Loki was lying back, still breathing heavily as Clint cuddled him in his arms, he turned to him.

"Loki, listen, I have a mission tomorrow."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, about a week and a half."

"What?" Loki sounded startled.

"I'm sorry. I'll come and visit the second I get back, I'll be fine, don't worry!" He laughed. "I've done this before."

"Yeah, I guess." Loki said, not at all reassured.

"Hey, I'm coming over later to tell Thor, you'll see me then, o.k."

"Yeah, sure." He said, clinging to Clint a little tighter.

"Hey." He lifted Loki's chin and kissed him softly. "I'll be fine. Now, come on, you've a brother to go to, don't want to get in trouble pretty boy." He smirked.

"Yeah, alright, I'm going!" he pulled on his clothes. "See you later?"

"I'd better.' He smirked, pulling him in for a quick kiss. Loki sighed into it, pulling deeper, before leaving, smile wiping off his face the second he left the room. Clint sighed. "Guess I'd better pack…"

Loki returned to Asgard and slung a scarf around his neck to distract from the obvious markings. Thor raised his eyebrows when he walked in.

"Where have you been?" He walked over, hands on his hips.

"I- uh- out, I told you I was going out." He stuttered.

"That's not what I asked you." He sighed.

"Just… with a friend."

"Who?"

"Uh-…"

"Why are you warring a scarf inside?" He said suddenly.

"huh- Oh, it was cold, that's all." He edged back a bit.

"So take it off." Thor's arms were folded as he walked closer.

"I- uh- well, thing is- HEY!"

Thor ripped Loki's scarf from his neck and looked at him, opening his mouth in shock.

"LOKI! WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE?!" He shouted.

"I- uh… Fell over!" He tried lying.

"No Loki, I know what those are, I've had those."

Loki hung his head. Thor sighed.

"Who is it?"

"No one." He muttered.

"Loki…"

Loki recognised the warning in Thor's voice and went red. "ntbarton." He muttered.

"What?"

"Your friend from the other night."

"WHAT!?"

Loki flinched. "He's not that bad."

"NOT THAT- Loki, no, he's not a good guy, you don't understand, he's a- damnit, I'm gonna kill him!"

"Please, I love him, don't." Loki pleaded, Thor looked at him, _oh Loki, he's not good for you_. He sighed, suddenly angry with Clint.

"Of all the people, CLINT FUCKING BARTON?" He stormed to his room, slamming the door. Loki looked at his shoes. _Well that went well._ He went to the desk and flicked through Thor's address book. _Aha_ Clint Barton. He rang the number and paced, praying for him to pick up.

"Hello?" Clint's voice sounded.

"We have a problem."

"Loki? What is it?"

"Thor knows."

"… I'll be over in ten minutes."

He made it in five, pulling Loki into a hug when he opened the door.

"How is he?"

"Pretty pissed off, are you sure you want to talk to him?"

"yeah, sure, it's the decent thing to do."

"O.k." He smiled. "He's gonna have your head."

"I know." He sighed and walked up to Thor's room, following Loki; who knocked on the door.

"What?" A gruff voice sounded from inside.

"Umm.. Thor? Clint's here…" He opened the door. Clint walked in meekly.

"I'm guessing you're pretty pissed… and that's fair enough, I deserve it…"

Thor sat up. "Understatement of the century."

"Yeah, I know, I just wanted to say, I would never hurt Loki."

"Loki give us a minute. Alone." Thor says, not taking his eyes off Clint. Loki sighed and left the room, throwing a worried glance at his partner.

Thor sighed. "Clint…"

"I swear, I wasn't just trying for a shag." Thor looked at him. "O.k., I was, but that was before, now it's different. I love Loki, and I'm pretty sure he loves me." He said suddenly.

Thor sighed. "That's what you always say, I mean you say that, and yet yesterday you were bragging about this thing with Steve."

"That was nothing! I was drunk! I truly mean it. I would never hurt Loki!"

Thor turned serious. "Good, because if you do, I promise you, bad

things will happen, he doesn't deserve it, and I know you, you are a player and a jerk."

"Player I'll agree with, but jerk's a little harsh, don't you think?"

"Get out." Thor pointed at the door.

Clint chuckled and walked out, smiling at Loki, who was waiting nervously outside.

"Well that went as well as could be expected."

Loki looked at him. "He didn't hit you…I thought he was going to hit you"

"So did I." He smirked, pulling Loki into a hug. "It would have been worth it."

"Really?" Loki said in a small voice.

"Of course, I'd do anything for you." He kissed him tenderly, hand to Loki's chin.

"I love you too, idiot." He smiled, kissing back. Thor walked out and saw them kissing. Clint smirked smugly, Loki went red, looking at his feet. Thor rolled his eyes and walked to the kitchen. Clint grinned broader, pulling Loki to his room, proving to him just how much he did love him, and how much he would miss him, leaving plenty of reminders over Loki's body.

At midnight, Clint manouvers himself out of the bed, Loki whimpers and clings tighter.

"Listen, I have to go now, to get some rest for tomorrow."

"Uh huh." He sighs sadly. "See you in a week and a half."

Clint opens his arms. "Come here pretty boy." Loki does as he's told. Clint hugs him. "Don't worry, okay?"

"Not possible." He grips him tightly.

"Everything is going to be all right." He whispers. Loki nods, closing his eyes, committing the feeling to memory. Clint kisses him passionately, a silent promise to return, Loki kisses him deeply, making needy noises. Clint grabs him closer, Loki already clinging tightly.

"Just make sure you come back in one piece."

"I promise you, just stop worrying, you'll get used to it."

Loki nods. "Yeah, sure."

"I'll go say goodbye to your brother." He kisses him again.

Loki kisses back. "O.k."

Clint walks to Thor's room and knocks on the door. Thor is sitting at his desk.

"Hello?" Thor asks. "Come in."

"Hey…" He rubs the back of his neck.

"Clint… what do you want?"

"Listen… I have a week and a half mission, starting tomorrow so I came to say goodbye and yeah…"

"Right… well, goodbye, we'll meet up after? How's Loki dealing with it?"

"He's worried but he'll get used to it…"

Thor nods. "I'll keep an eye on him."

"Thanks, uhm.. listen… we're cool, right? Just because Loki and I are together doesn't mean that we can't still be friends."

"Yeah, sure, what I said still stands, hurt him…"

Clint nodded. "I swear, and I'm a man of my word."

Thor knew this to be true. "Alright then, see you after?"

"Sure." He smiles.

Clint grins and leaves, finding Loki in the hallway.

"So you're off?'

"Yeah…"

"O.k."

Clint hugs him one last time, Loki clings tightly, eyes squeezed shut. Clint pulls back, kisses him and walks away, Loki watches him walk goes to his room, managing to worry himself to sleep. Loki would discover the true meaning of pain in the next few days, but by now it was already too late, Clint and Loki were fated and set in their course, one that would prove to be destructive, passionate, and, heart- wrenching, perhaps Loki would live to regret the previous day, perhaps not…


	3. Still a better love story than Twilight

SourceURL:file:/localhost/Users/natalie/Documents/Death%20leaves%20a%20heartache%20no%20one%20can%20heal,%20love%20leaves%20a%20memory%20no%20one%20can%20steal/If%20you're%20going%20to%20hell%20keep%20going

The next morning Loki walked downstairs, slightly on edge, flinching at loud noises, and glancing at the clock a lot. Thor joins him in the kitchen and beams at him.

"Morning!"

"… Morning." He sighs

"What's wrong?" Thor said, completely forgetting about Clint and the mission.

"Nothing." Loki sighs, looking at the clock.

Thor remembers. "Oh, uh, he's probably on the mission right now…" Loki nods glumly, checking the clock again.

"Loki, why do you keep looking at the clock?" Thor asks.

"Watching the time." He says, eyes on the clock again. Thor sighs and goes to the kitchen, leaving Loki playing with his food glumly. Suddenly there is a knock on the door. Loki runs to it with a surprising amount of speed.

"Oh… hey, Thor! Mom and dad are back!" Loki calls, Thor appearing beside him with a wide grin.

"Oh hey!" He kisses his mother's cheek and embraces his dad. "Hello father."

"Hello son, what've you two been up to?" The boys' father smiles.

"Nothing much, just on the schedule…" Thor says, shooting a sly look at Loki.

Odin completely misses the look and nods. "Good, good, we'll be down later, we must unpack." And with that Odin leads his wife upstairs, lugging the bags with them, leaving Thor in the hall and Loki sitting on the couch, still looking at the clock.

"O.k. will do." He turns to Loki. "Loki, stop staring at the clock, it won't make time go faster, he'll be alright. Clint is a strong man, go put on a scarf or something…"

Loki yelps and runs upstairs, covering his exposed neck. Thor shook his head and sighed.

Loki stayed in his room until lunchtime, whereupon he joins his family around the table, jacket collar turned the full way up, an awkward silence descended over the room.

"So… did you guys have fun?" Thor spoke eventually.

Loki sat, fiddling with his food and not eating, their mother answers Thor. "Oh yes, we saw the most interesting things, didn't we dear?" Odin nods at his wife's question, swallowing his food down heartily, like father like son. Thor kicks Loki's feet under the table, Loki looks up sharply with a 'what?' look on his face, Thor mimes eating, pointing at Loki's food with his fork. Loki sighs and scoops a forkful of food in his mouth with a 'you happy?' look. Thor nods, Loki pushes his plate forward.

"I'm finished." He stands up, Thor joining him.

"Me too." The parents dismissed them with a nod and a raised eyebrow, Loki walks to his room and slumps on his bed, taking the shirt out from under his pillow and breathing in Clint's scent, crying softly.

The days past in what seemed like centuries, Loki getting thinner and paler, eyes darkening from lack of sleep, all he would do is sit on the couch, or in his room and look at the clock, worrying himself sick and crying himself to sleep. Luckily for him a peace conference had been called between realms, naturally his parents had been called in, so they were out of the house for yet another week, not that Loki noticed. Suddenly the doorbell rings. Loki rushes to the door, wrenching it open.

"Hello, pretty boy." Clint is standing there grinning, arm in a sling.

"What did you do?!" Eyes wide, Loki embraces Clint carefully.

Clint groans. "I'm fine." He takes in Loki's appearance. "You look so pale, what did _you_ do?"

"Oh, nothing much, waited around mostly." He hugs him again. "I missed you."

Clint groans again. "I missed you too, told you I'd be alright!"

"Huh? Broken arm, real alright." He smiles and sighs. "Come on in, my parents are outta town again."

"Oh good, a broken arm is better than a dead body, right?"

"I suppose." He mutters. "Better take more care next time."

"Will do." He smirks, turning down Loki's offer of a drink. "Loki, you need to eat, you're all skinny, and you were thin to start with."

Loki grumbles, preparing some toast. "Yes mom..." He nibbles on the crust. "Better?"

"Yes!" Clint smirks and Loki offers a small smile. Thor walks in the room.

"Oh thank gods! He's back!"

Clint grins and opens his not- broken arm. "I am!" Thor rolls his eyes.

"Took your time, I though Loki was gonna fade away to nothing!" He hugs Clint. "You'd better take care of him now!"

"Oh I will!" Clint laughs.

Thor smirks. "Right I'm going out for a bit, Clint, feed him, Loki, sleep at some point, O.K.?" He orders, Loki nods.

"Don't worry about it man." Clint grins.

Thor rolls his eyes and walks out. Loki collapses on the sofa.

"Man, I'm shattered."

"No, you'll eat and _then_ sleep, food, now!"

"I'm not hungry."

"I don't care."

Loki sighs and goes into the kitchen, polishing off three days worth of leftovers, discovering his apatite had found him now Clint was back. "Happy?"

"Yes, now come on, you need sleep, let's go to your room!"

Loki nods obediently. "I defiantly need some sleep." Clint leads him to his bedroom.

"I just realised how much I missed you." He grins and pulls Loki in for a kiss, Loki kissing back deeply, gasping a little. Clint pulls back.

"Your bites are gone." He bites his lip.

Loki looks down. "Yeah, two or three days now."

"I'm taking off the cast tomorrow, you'll get new ones, I promise." He grins. Loki grins back. "I look forward to it." Clint giggles and kisses him again. Loki kisses back, pulling him onto the bed carefully; Clint bites Loki's lower lip, making him moan a little. He realises what he's doing and pulls back.

"You need to sleep!"

"I need you more."

"Oh trust me, I need you too, but you need to sleep!"

"Fine." Satisfied for now he lays his head on his pillow, Clint lays next to him, Loki sighs, visibly relaxing, he smiles.

"Goodnight, Pretty boy." He smiles.

"Goodnight Clint." He yawns noisily and falls asleep in Clint's… arm?

Fifteen minutes later, Clint kisses Loki's forehead and starts moving from the bed, causing Loki to whimper in his sleep and cling to Clint.

"I have to go Loki." He says gently. Loki's grip loosens a little and he sighs, waking slightly.

"You better visit me tomorrow to get some new bites!" He stands up. Loki mutters something that sounds similar to 'tass'.

"I'll take that as a yes." He leaves Loki's room and goes back to the tower. Loki sleeps properly for the first time in one and a half weeks.

Loki wakes up, feeling good, he walks downstairs, greeting Thor with a smile.

"You look better!"

"I feel better." He stretches, groaning and rubbing his eyes. "I slept last night."

'Hallelujah, Clint has worked his magic on you!" He giggles.

Loki snorts. "I just managed to sleep without worrying where Clint was."

"Just go." Thor says, knowing the only thing on his mind was visiting his partner.

"Back later, or tomorrow." He grins and leaves. Thor shakes his head and smiles.

"Oh Loki, what have you gotten yourself into?"

Loki goes to the tower and buzzes the intercom.

"Candy gram!"

"Hey, come in!" Clint opens the door and kissies him immediately, Loki kisses back hard, before inspecting Clint's arm.

"I got my cast off, finally." He grins.

Loki smirks. "So I see, keep it that way." Clint throws him on the bed and starts kissing him hungrily, Loki leans up to kiss him hard, arms round his shoulders.

"Still want new bites?" Clint Whispered.

"Hel yes." Clint gets on top of him and rips both of their shirts off; Loki looks up, eyes darkening with lust. Clint starts biting, making Loki gasp again. The night pasted in what seemed to be an instant, both of them proving how much they had missed each other.

The next morning Loki stands topless in the bathroom, admiring his new bites in the mirror. Clint groans and looks at him.

"Morning sunshine."

"Morning." Loki grins

"Nice bites." Clint giggles.

"I know." Loki waggles his eyebrows.

Clint motions him towards the bed. "Come here!" Loki walks over to him.

"Yes?"

"I still miss you, you know."

"I miss you too." He leans down to kiss Clint, who pulls Loki on top of him.

"I like this vantage point."

"What point?" He grins.

"Right here, on top of you." Loki smirks.

"You know, I think I need a hickey." Clint raises an eyebrow.

"Oh really? Any preference as to where?"

Clint points to his neck. "Right here."

"If you want." Loki smirks.

"I insist." Clint smirks back. Loki puts his mouth on the place where Clint's pulse is strongest, biting softly on the warm skin and smiling against it.

"Here?"

Clint gasps. "Y-y-yes." Loki smirks and bites down harder, leaving a mark, but quickly smoothing his tongue over the wound to distract from any pain he'd caused, he leans up to kiss him again, Clint kisses him roughly and shoves him straight back down.

"How about another, just for luck?" Loki teased.

"I say why not." He grins. Loki smirks and pulls up Clint's shirt, planting a hickey on his collarbone.

Clint groans. "Jeez."

"Sorry." He smoothes his tongue over the mark. "Am I hurting you?"

"No, keep going!" Loki grins and sets to work, biting every space on Clint's body he can get his teeth into, always taking away the pain with his tongue."

Clint groans again. "I didn't know you were that good, pretty boy.

"Neither did I." He bites again. "We'll have to do this again sometime."

"Sure thing." He grins. Loki smirks and shuts him up with a hard kiss. Clint moans into it, Loki grunts and kisses his collarbone, enjoying dealing out the pleasure.

"Loki, I have to go to work." He moans.

"Are you sure?" He bites again teasingly.

Clint gasps. "No."

"Good." He rewards him with a bite.

"I'll get fired because of you." He giggles.

Loki nibbles his earlobe. "You could always phone in sick." He whispers into his ear.

"You're such a tease." He whines.

"Am I?" He bites softly on the skin behind his ear.

Clint moans, "Fuck yes."

Loki bites again on his ear before working on Clint's neck, enjoying every little sound he made Clint make.

"I'll be fired Loki." Clint laughs when they were finished, Loki still lying on top of him, looking rather smug.

"I don't think so, you broke your arm, you're allowed a day off."

"I just have to give my boss some papers that's all, but I'm late…"

"Meh, you slept in." He smiles. Clint puts on his boxers and wriggles out from under Loki.

"I'll take a shower." Loki grunts from the bed and lies face down. Ten minutes later he gets out, a towel around his waist, getting dressed in a hurry.

"Get off at normal time?" Loki asks.

"Yep, I might come over and catch up with your brother."

"O.k., you might wanna think about a scarf." He purrs; pleased with his handiwork.

"Shit… It doesn't matter anyway." He grabs his papers and runs to Fury's office. Loki bounds happily up to the palace and walks in.

"Thor? I'm back!"

"Oh, hey! How's Clint?" His voice floats from the couch.

"Fine, fast recovery, plenty of energy." He smirks, sitting next to his brother.

"Nice bites." Thor raises an eyebrow.

"I know." He smirks. "They're deeper, should last longer."

Thor shakes his head. "He said he might come over tonight."

"Yeah, he mentioned something about that."

Meanwhile, Clint gets out of the boss' office and bumps into Natasha.

"Hey Nat."

"Hey… nice… bites… I didn't know Steve was a biter…"

"Steve? What? No!"

Natasha raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"No! And who told you about Steve?"

Natasha smirks. "You really think no one knows, Clint, we all know, we just don't talk about it."

"It's not Steve. Ew…"

"Who is it then?"

"A girl, she's not in S.H.I.E.L.D."

She raises her eyebrow. "What's her name?"

"Erm… Uh… Lottie…"

"Lottie? Why do I get the feeling you're lying to me Barton?"

"Well I wouldn't lie because it's stupid and plus why do you care?" He raises an eyebrow.

"I'm interested." She smirks. "When I do find out who it is I'll be sure to let you know."

"Right…"

She smiles sweetly and walks off. "I caught you staring FYI." Her hips were swinging again.

Clint looks away. "Bitch." He says under his breath.

Five hours later Clint shows up at the palace.

"Hey!" Loki grins. "I see you've abandoned the idea of a scarf."

"I got asked about it a couple of times." He giggled as Loki sat him down on the sofa.

"And?" He smirks at Clint and calls for Thor to come down.

"I told them it was a girl outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. And she's a biter." He laughs.

"Except she's called Lottie."

"Well you got it mostly right." He giggles, Thor enters the room. "Hey Thor, Barton's here."

"Hey man." He grins.

Loki runs to the kitchen. "Gonna grab some snacks." He calls back. Thor shouts after him;

"Bring some beer."

"Will do." Loki calls, Thor turns back to Clint.

"So, how's work?"

"Meh, boring as ever, more and more paperwork, but at least I don't get dragged off so much."

"Good, good."

"How was Loki? He looked really ill yesterday."

"Oh don't worry, you're magic is working alright." He smirks.

"I'll bet." Clint grins, Loki returns with food and beer.

"Thanks." Thor takes a beer from Loki, who in return chucks one to Clint and takes the last fro himself, smiling happily. Thor gives Loki and Clint a weird look.

"Did you do that you little bastard?" He points at Clint's neck. Loki smirks.

"I'm rather proud of it." Thor shakes his head. "You should see the one's on his chest." Loki continues proudly.

"Loki, go to your room." Thor raises an eyebrow.

"What did I do? I don't hear Clint complaining." He smirks.

"If you don't stop bragging about it I'll punch both of you."

Loki smirks. "I think Thor's jealous."

"This is sick." Thor walks to his room.

Loki snorts. "How's it sick? I bet he's done worse." Thor slams his bedroom door. "Sorry Thor!" He calls back. "Ooops, well he did ask…" Thor opens his door.

"Loki, stop it! Clint, come here."

With a look at Loki Clint goes to his brothers room. Thor tuts and sighs.

"I have a disgusting brother!"

Clint smirked. "I think you have a wonderful brother."

"Clint, don't make me kick you out."

"Oh come on, I'm just playing."

Thor sighs. "Anyway… what happened today at work, I heard you say something

about people asking you?"

"Yep."

"What happened?"

"People commented on the markings on my neck and I said my gf was a biter."

Thor laughs. "Really?"

"Yep." Clint doesn't mention Natasha didn't believe him.

"Natasha asked you?"

"Yeah, actually."

"What'd she say?"

"Erm…" He shuffles a little. "'O.k. then'"

"Really?

"… Yes."

"Your eyes tell a different story." He raises an eyebrow.

"O.k., fine she didn't believe me, so what?"

Thor laughs. "Will you be fired if they knew?"

"…Meh, probably, it'd be worth it."

Thor sighs. "What happening with Steve?"

"Huh? Oh, it was a one time thing, we were drunk, amusing to tease him about it in the lunch que, that's all."

"Uh huh… so, you got your cast off already?"

"Yeah, yesterday."

"Good." They somehow managed to fill the next three hours with conversation, about everything and nothing, until there was a knock on the door; Loki peeks in.

"You gonna keep Barton all to yourself in there?"

"He's boring me, you can take him."

"Yay!" He pulls Clint out the door. "Thank you Thor, stay out of room for a bit."

"Disgusting, close the door!" Thor lies back on his bed. Loki kicks the door shut and giggles, dragging Clint to his room.

"Thank Gods you're back, everything's so much more lively with you around."

Clint giggles. "I feel special!"

"You are special." Clint grins and grabs him for a kiss; Loki kisses him back passionately, grinning broadly. Clint throws him on the bed.

"Getting awful rough aren't we?" Loki grins.

"Damn right." He straddles Loki roughly.

Loki leans up for a kiss. "What's gotten into you? I like it." He smirked.

Clint giggles. "When are your parents coming back?"

"Don't know, don't care, not who I wanna be thinking about." He whines, pulling at Clint.

"We don't want to get caught Pretty boy."

"I dunno, keep acting like this and I might not mind." Clint bites his collarbone hard, getting straight to the point and shutting Loki up. He bites again, harder, almost drawing blood.

"Fuck Clint!" Loki moans loudly.

"Do you want me to stop?" He says, teeth teasingly close to Loki's skin.

"No. Fucking. Way." Loki moans again, clinging hard to Clint's shoulders.

"Good." Clint bites down again, harder. By the time Clint had finished, both boys were slick with sweat and breathing hard, more than making up for the days without each other.

The next morning Loki wakes up with deep wounds all over him.

"Holy crap." He looks down, wide-eyed, Thor was gonna kill him. Clint woke up, groaning.

"Sorry abo-" He sees the clock. "SHIT!" He starts putting on his clothes.

"Late again." Loki sighs. "Right, see you after work?"

"Hope so!" He runs to the door.

"WAIT!" Loki calls him back, Clint turns. "What?"

Loki pulls Clint in for a deep kiss. "Off you go." Loki smiles, Clint grins back and runs out the door, Loki sighs and wonders what to do with the day.

Clint bumps into Steve in the hallway, the air hanging awkward between them.

Oh, hey, Clint… nice… bites?"

Clint rubs the back of his neck. "Uh, yeah, sorry, I'm late… I mean sorry, I'm in a hurry."

"Right, yeah, um, listen about that thing the other week… I kinda told Nat… sorry."

"Thanks so much! We'll talk later." Clint runs to his room without another word. Steve blinks and shuffles away.

Half an hour later there is a knock on his door, Clint sighs and opens it.

"Look, Ste-" Standing there is Tony, leaning on the wall and raising an eyebrow at him.

"Tony! Uh, what do you want?"

Tony's eyebrow, if possible, arched higher. "Not even asking. Anyway, there's a party,

drink-y, work-y, thing going on, figured you might need to know."

"Oh! Ummm… I can't, uh, paperwork." He shrugged, not willing to miss a night with Loki for some party.

"You don't have a choice, the new meeting briefs are gonna be announced so you'll have to be there. _Paperwork_…" He said with a knowing smile. "Or no _paperwork._"

"Whatever, I'll be there." Clint sighed; best go and break the bad news.

Back at Asgard Loki is dabbing a particularly deep cut on his neck with a damp napkin when Thor came in.

"What the hel happened? Did you fight?"

"Huh, no, not exactly." Loki coughs a little, the doorbell rings before Thor can ask any more questions, Loki sighs.

"Do you mind?" He points at the door. Thor opens it and talks loudly so Loki will hear.

"Hey mom! Hey dad!" He puts on a fake grin; Loki hides under the table, nowhere else to go. "Do you need any help?" Thor asks.

"No, we shouldn't be long, needed to stop off to collect some papers, where's Loki?"

"Ummm… Loki? He's… he's out." Odin Looks at Thor.

"The schedule says he should be studying."

"Yeah, he, uh, just finished, went for a walk." Thor knew he wasn't as good a liar as his brother.

"O.k.… say hi when he gets back, could you help us get these bags to the kitchen?"

"Oh! Leave them father, I'll do it myself, it's o.k." He grins and caries the bags to the kitchen, Odin steps into the living room, sitting on the sofa while his wife runs upstairs to grab a few things. Thor finds Loki under the table.

"You'd better stay hidden, and find a good reason for those bites and cuts, I told them you were out for a walk and had finished studying." He whispers.

Loki nods. "Could you get me a tissue? One of theme's bleeding." He whispers back. Thor shakes his head at the words and, out of impulse, throws him the box.

Odin turns to him. "Thor! Pick that up immediately!" Thor turns a little red and picks it up.

"Sorry father."

"Such behaviour is beneath a prince. We shall be back later." He sighs and huffs, walking out the door. Loki comes out from behind the table, holding a tissue to stop the slow trickle of blood from the bite."

Thor shakes his head. "What did he do to you?"

"Umm… he was, I dunno, it was like he was p-possessed or something."

He turns red. "He got… rough…"

Thor snorts. "Let me help you." He dabs at the cut with a wet napkin. Loki winces slightly but nods his thanks.

"Seriously, you have to stop this."

"Stop what?"

"The whole bites thing, mom and dad are back, who knows, Clint may loose his job!"

Loki nods. "I'll talk to him."

"Good, clean up and hide those marks before they get back…" There is another knock on the door, Thor opens it precariously, Loki sees who it is and abandon's the scarf.

"Hey!" Loki grins, Thor folds his arms.

"Seriously Clint, stop eating my brother! Look at him!"

Clint smirks, quite pleased with himself, Loki's grins too. "Why? He's delicious!" He leans over, pulling Loki in front, nibbling his ear to make his point. Loki squirms and goes very red, blinking up at Thor who is looking down at them, unimpressed.

"Disgusting!" He snorts and walks back to his bedroom. Loki pulls Clint in and grins.

"You really know how to piss him off, you know that?"

Clint grins proudly. "Good, we can make him leave anytime we want!" Loki raises his eyebrows.

"My, my, what are you implying?" He pokes his tongue out.

Clint smirks, and then falters. "Wait. Aren't your parents back?"

"Yeah, they're out all evening though, they'll be back in an hour or so."

Clint sighs. "You can't come over tonight, I'm sorry Loki."

"What? Why?" Loki said, already worrying internally.

Clint laughs. "Calm down, I just have to hang out with my co- workers, I have no choice!"

"Oh, o.k. Haven't they been asking about those?" He points at Clint's neck.

"Oh, they're bugging me about it." He smirks.

Loki grinned. "You can come tomorrow, right?"

"Don't worry about it, Pretty boy!" He smirks.

"You know me." Loki smirks back. "You want a drink?"

"Oh, I can't, I just came to say we can't do it tonight."

"Very bluntly put." Loki smirks. "Right, tomorrow then?"

"Tomorrow it is!" Clint leans in for a kiss, Loki's response is to song him as though he hasn't seen Clint in years.

"Get out of here!"

Clint smirks. "Alright, alright!" He walks out the door, winking cheekily at Loki. Loki smiles happily and sits down again.

'Thor! He's gone!" Loki calls, Thor comes back down.

"Good! And no talking about Clint!"

Loki pouts. "But he has so many virtues!"

"Loki! Stop it!"

"And such a talented mou- nothing!"

"Loki, enough! Go clean up!"

"Clean up?" Loki tilted his head, Thor gestured towards his neck. "Oh, I'll

Just put on a scarf, I should be in bed when they get back anyway."

"Alright, I'm going to my room, do you need anything?"

"Nah, I'll be fine, anything on the T.V worth watching?"

"I doubt it. I'm gonna take a nap, so do whatever." He said, already walking to his room. Loki sighed and went to the kitchen to get a sandwich.

Steve runs into Clint in the tower, again. "Watch it there Rodgers!"

"Oh, hey Clint, umm… Listen, about that thing with Natasha, sorry I told her..."

Clint sighs. "Yeah, whatever." He looks at Steve, who is trying hard not to stare at Clint's neck and failing, Clint self- consciously turns up his jacket collar. "So, you coming tonight?"

"Yeah." Steve picks up on Clint turning up his collar. "Who-? Natasha?"

"What?!" Clint splutters. "No! No! Urgh, it's a girl outside of shield. No!" He pulls a disgusted face, admittedly not as disgusted as he was pretending.

"Oh, I see, can I meet her?"

"Yeah, umm, not sure that's a good idea…" Clint says nervously.

"Why not? She must be some girl, you stayed with her longer than one night!"

"Yeah- no, h-she's not ready to meet you guys… it's not serious yet."

"Not serious? You are actually considering going serious! Who are you and what have you done with Clint Barton?"

Clint laughs. "Why not?" I mean… I really do like her…" Steve acts out pinching himself, his mouth forming a perfect 'o' shape. "I think I'm gonna have a stroke."

"Oh come on! I've just stopped sleeping around, I think I'm gonna try a long relationship!"

"Alright, alright! I'm pleased for you! Just introduce her soon, yeah? She must be some girl!"

"Not gonna happen Cap." Clint chuckles

Steve smirks and pats him on the back. "Right, see you round."

"Alright." He walks away. "How come I slept with him? Ugh." He says quietly to himself.

Later that evening Clint dutifully arrives at the party, annoyed that the mission plans have been put back until the morning, but forced to stay he finds Natasha.

"Hey Nat…"

"Hey Clint, I see mystery girl has been having some fun." She gestures at his neck, refusing to ignore the elephant in the room.

Clint sighs. "Seriously, stop it already."

"Nope, I need to know." She grins, bating him playfully on the arm. "Wanna drink?"

"Alright, but don't get me drunk, I don't wanna sleep around again."

"Scouts honour." Natasha smirked, fingers crossed behind her back. She collects two drinks, passing one to Clint and watches him down it, unbeknown to Clint, she has spiked his with vodka.

"Whoa… this tastes weird…"

"Meh, it's not the usual brand."

"Oh, cool, how was your last mission?"

"A success, minimum casualties, information gathered, no complications, zero agents lost. And yours?" She gets Clint another spiked drink.

"Success, but, uhm, I broke my arm, but it's fine now." He says, starting to get tipsy, Natasha smiles and keeps giving Clint's spiked drinks, gently steering the conversation towards her chosen topic.

"So… mystery girl, what's she like?"

"D-d-don't ask!" He says as Steve shows up. Natasha beams at him.

"Hey Steve, what's your poison?"

"What?" Steve looks startled, Natasha laughs.

"What do you want to drink?"

"I'm fine with vodka." Natasha hands him one.

"Vodka for Steve!" Clint falls off his chair, Natasha smirks.

"Had one too many Barton?" They both pick him up and sit him down, Clint groans.

"My h-head… h-hurts…" He rubs his forehead.

"Not surprised, have some water." She hands him yet another spiked drink.

"Y-you know… I think I'll g-" He sips the drink. "Go back to my mystery girl." He stands up.

"Oh yeah, who is she again?" Natasha calls.

Clint throws his arm up. "She's mystery girl!" He does a twirl and lands flat on his face, Natasha helps him up.

"Who else is she?"

"She's-" Maria shows up.

"Don't get too drunk Barton, you have a meeting in the morning!" She turns to Natasha, who smiles innocently and hurries her along.

"You were saying?"

"I was saying… what?" He walks towards the door and yells. "Goodnight everybody!"

Steve grins. "Damnit he's even hotter when he's drunk!"

Natasha smirks. "Mystery girl, remember? You haven't a hope!"

"I know, he's even considering going serious!"

"What!?" She looks at Steve. "Seriously!?" Steve nods at her question with a disappointed look. "There, there." She pats him on the back. "Maybe it won't last, we know Barton."

"Man… this sucks, for a second I thought I had him…" He sighs. "I best get back, meeting in the morning, think I've had enough hangovers this week, eh?"

"O.k., see you round Steve."

"Yep, see you." Steve walks out, a few minutes later followed by Natasha, who returns to her room, bored out of her mind. Clint looses his way and managed to bump into Steve again.

"Urgh, not you again! Where's my room?" Clint groans, Steve smirks and it takes all his self-restraint not to drag Clint to his room and have his way with him.

"Here Clint, I'll show you." He leads him back towards his apartment and away from his own. "So, who's mystery girl? You said you'd say…" He lied.

"I told you, her name is mystery girl!" He laughs.

"Yeah, but who is she really?" Steve sighs, Clint falls over. Again.

"Seriously? This is the millionth time I fell over, I swear!" He says angrily, still lying on the ground. Steve looks at him with lusty eyes.

"H-how drunk are you?"

"I don't know, just take me home!" He yawns, Steve picks him up gingerly, and trys not to let his hands wonder _too _much. Clint sighs.

"You know… I think I'm so drunk that I'm gonna pass out right now…" He groans again. Steve gulps, must be a gift from god.

"You know, we could stay up a bit…"

"Nah, unless you're willing to get me pizza!"

"Pizza sounds good!" He grabs the phone quickly, speedily ordering and shoving Clint into the bedroom. "More comfy in here!" Steve says quickly. Clint throws himself on the bed and hugs his pillows.

"Oh my babies!" He sighs happily. Steve looks at him and bites his lip, _should I? Well, he won't remember…_ He slowly lies next to Clint.

"Where's the pizza? I'm hungry!"

"It'll be later, half an hour."

Clint sighs. "Come on!"

"Not my fault!" He yawns and puts his arm round Clint.

"You're paying, right? Cause I'm broke!" He doesn't notice Steve.

"Yeah, sure, although I might ask a small favour."

"No money." He raises and eyebrow and closed his eyes.

"Suits me." He leans in, breathing hard.

"What's the favour?" He doesn't notice how close Steve is.

"I dunno, I'll think of something." He leans in yet closer. Clint opens his eyes and laughs.

"You're so close!"

"Yeah I am." He leans in closer, lips almost touching Clint's. "Problem?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to sleep!"

Steve sighs. "What about the pizza?"

"Oh, yeah, right… Just wake me up when it comes." Clint closes his eyes again. Steve kisses him softly, before backing up. Clint pulls away quickly.

"We're not having sex again!"

"Hey, who said anything about sex?"

'You kissed me!"

"So?"

"Whatever, wake me up when pizza's here!" Clint closes his eyes again and falls asleep, Steve leans over Clint, gently playing with his hair, _what to do with you Clint_. He is still asleep and doesn't feel anything Steve is doing. Steve kisses him softly , checking his reactions, Clint still didn't feel anything, _well Clint looks awful hot, I'd better cool him off_, he gently undoes Clints shirt, Clint feels it, but is too tired to do anything, Steve tries resisting temptation… _To hell with it, he's asleep._ He lies in close, running his hands up Clint's chest, shivers go up Clint's spine; he thinks it's Loki.

"Babe, your hands are c-cold." He says in a sleepy voice, eyes still shut.

"Wanna help warm them up?" Steve smirked, not believing his ears.

"Let's do it in the morning." He says, turning over and giving him his bare back. Steve frowned. _But you'll be sober in the morning_. He wraps his arms around Clint.

"But I wanna do it now." Steve whines. Clint ignores him and groans. "Come on, before the pizza gets here." He coos into Clint's ear. "Please?"

"Hmm, I promised you to do it tomorrow, remember? Now let me sleep babe." He says, not noticing it's Steve, who arches his eyebrow.

"Please… you'll have to get up anyway."

"No, now Shhhh."

"Fine then… say my name." He grins wickedly, gently kissing Clint's ear. Clint ignores him and falls asleep. Steve sighs and waits for the pizza, easily slipping in and out of Clint's apartment.

"Pizza's here!" Steve calls. Clint remains asleep so Steve stands over him, holding a piece of pepperoni near Clint's mouth. "Don't make me force feed you…" Clint wakes up with a groan.

"Uh." He scratches his head. "Where's my shirt?"

"You took it off." Steve says quickly, kicking it under the wardrobe.

"Oh… yeah, right." He says, starting to eat, Steve sits next to him, also eating. Suddenly Clint laughs.

"I had a funny dream!"

"Oh really? What about?" Steve asks.

"I don't know who it was, but someone was touching me! I hope it wasn't you!"

"Uh. Nope, just a dream, I was waiting for pizza." To be fair this was not entirely untrue.

"Good." He laughs, Steve smiles, _so close_.

"Uh, I'm finished." Steve says with a sigh.

"That fast?"

"Yeah not hungry." Steve says, adding with a mutter. "For food."

"What?" Clint says, not really listening.

"Nothing."

Clint chuckles. "Alright." Steve smiles at Clint.

"You done?"

"Yep!" He says, standing up.

"Where are you going?"

"Looking for a shirt." He opens his wardrobe.

"I see." _Damnit_. Clint pulls a shirt over his head and throws himself on the bed.

"Goodnight Cap!"

"Mind if I stay?" He sits on the bed next to Clint.

"Alright, but don't wake me up!" He yawns and closes his eyes. Steve lies next to him, openly staring, Clint quickly falls asleep so Steve re-positions himself with his arm wrapped around Clint, who doesn't even notice him. Steve nuzzles Clint's neck. _So not fair, why should this new girl get Clint, I've been waiting longer._ He kisses Clint's neck softly, he still doesn't wake. _To hell with it._ He moves to Clint's shoulders, Clint moans in his sleep.

"You like that?" Steve continues, lifting his shirt to get at his back, Clint wakes and realises it's Steve, but is too tired to do anything about it. Steve continues, removing his shirt completely, and kisses his exposed chest.

"Steve…" Clint whispers.

"Yes Clint?"

"Are you raping me again?"

"No, of course not." He says, not stopping. "Besides you rather enjoyed yourself last time."

"Okay." He looks tired and sleepy, Steve kisses harder, biting a tiny bit, not enough to leave any marks, not being big on biting.

"But…." Clint sighs tiredly.

"But what? No buts." He continues kissing, working lower.

"But you're raping me,"

"No I'm not, you're not stopping me..." Clint sighs at this.

"I'll take that as consent." He says, working lower, Clint to tired and drunk to stop him…


	4. Three section, room B

Steve wakes up first. _Now Steve, act hung-over._ He groans.

"W-what the-?" He emphasizes his speech with another groan, waking Clint, who opens his eyes to see Steve and falls off the bed.

"Not again!" Clint yells.

"Huh? H- I mean… what the hell? What happened?"

"We're both naked, what do you think happened smartass?" He snaps angrily, starting to pull on his boxers.

"Shut up." Steve pulls on his own clothes. "I knew you hadn't changed."

"Get the hell out!" Clint notices the clock. "Shit! Meeting!" He starts changing, not bothering to shower, Steve leaves, a smirk on his face.

Clint runs a hand through his hair. "Goddamnit!" He quickly rushes to the briefing room to the meeting; which has only just started, he bumps into Steve in the hallway, somehow the other man has managed to change and still arrive at the same time, Clint avoids eye contact and, Steve raises his eyebrow.

"Subtle."

Clint shoves him against the wall. "Nothing happened, you hear me? You better keep your mouth shut sucker!" He storms into the meting. Steve brushes himself down, trying not to be hurt by Clint's words.

Clint gets out when the meeting's over, still pissed off, barely able to concentrate he was seething so much. He goes back to his room at the end of the day for a shower, Steve has been avoiding him all day. _Good._ There is a knock on his door, Loki stands there.

"Hey."

Clint smiles. "Hey, come on in." Loki walks in and flops on the sofa, looking back at him.

"How was the party?"

"Fine."

"Good, and today?"

Clint sighs. "Loki, I need to tell you something, please don't get mad and leave me?"

"O.k. What is it?" He says, looking worried. Clint runs his fingers through his hair.

"I somehow got very drunk and I woke up next to a guy this morning. I swear I don't know what happened, I don't remember anything!" He walks towards Loki.

"WHAT!? What the Hel happened? Did you-?"

"I don't know, I just woke up naked next to a naked Steve, I swear I have no idea what happened baby I'm so sorry!"

"What!? Steve?! Again!? Why?!"

"I don't know, I think he raped me or something!"

"Really?" He says dubiously, chin tucked over his knee's and arms hugging his legs, he looked hurt." Clint sits next to him.

"I'm so sorry baby, please forgive me."

"Huh." He sits still, allowing Clint close but not pulling closer. Clint is having none of it and wraps his arms around him.

"I love you, I'm so sorry!" Clint says, kissing his forehead, Loki breaks and falls into his arms, shutting his eyes.

"I-I- Just- Never do it again!"

Clint hugs him tightly. "I promise babe." Loki curls up close, nodding.

"I trust you."

"Baby I don't even remember what happened but I'm so sorry!"

Loki nods. "It's o.k, if I ever meet Steve I'm gonna have his balls as Christmas decorations." He growls.

Clint chuckles. "That's disgusting."

Loki smirks. "Do you think Thor would mind, he seems pretty disgusted with us as it is.

"I don't know." He kisses the top of Loki's head, Loki smiles.

"Only one way to find out…" He mutters, Clint laughs. Loki grins, not quite reassured, but he trusts Clint so ignores his doubt.

"I promise, I'll talk to Steve, or maybe punch him too."

"Good." He smirks. "If he comes near you again…"

"Don't worry about it, pretty boy." Loki purrs slightly at the name and snuggles closer.

"I still have your shirt."

Clint smiles. "Keep it, so you can always remember me."

"I won't need to remember you, you're not going anywhere."

"When I go on missions." Clint says softly.

"But you'll come back." He clings a little tighter.

"Of course I will…. :

"You'd better, I've got used to having you around."

Clint clings tightly to Loki. "Let's not talk about it, okay?"

"Agreed." He nods.

"Come on, let's go lie on the bed."

"O.k." Loki smiles, letting Clint pull him. They both lie on the bed, Loki's head is on Clint's chest so he can hear Clint's heart beating and feel him breathing; he smiles happily.

"What did you do yesterday?" Clint's voice causes vibrations in his chest and Loki grins wider.

"Not much, avoided my parents, did some reading, stuff."

"I wish I could be with you more." He sighed.

"Same." He looks up at Clint.

"They kept asking about you yesterday… Steve told me he wants to meet my mystery girl."

"Uh huh? What'd you say?"

"I just told him we're not ready."

"Good, keeping me and Steve apart is a good idea. I've been considering telling my parents." He added quickly.

"Why?"

"I dunno, then we don't have to be so secret."

"What do you think they'd say?"

Well, they wouldn't be pleased, but hopefully they wouldn't kill me, I am their kid after all."

"I hope they wouldn't kill _me_!" He laughed.

"I'd like to see them try." He growls again. "Nah, they'd just try beating it out of me, not that it'd work." He though for a minute. "Maybe we shouldn't tell them just yet…"

"Yeah, maybe not anytime soon."

"Meh, none of their business anyway."

"You're right." He kisses the top of his head again.

Loki closes his eyes and speaks softly. "Always am." Clint giggles and Loki smirks. "Something I say amuse you?"

"Hmmm… I'm starting to think you love yourself more than you love me!"

"Oh darling that was always the case! I'm sorry!" He smiled to show he was joking.

"Oh I'm so jealous right now!" Clint smirks.

"So you should be." He grins. "What you gonna do?"

"Hmmm… Maybe if I satisfy you enough, you'd love me more than you love yourself?"

"Oh I don't know, I love myself a lot, " He winked. "I'm not sure you have it in you…"

"Well, what do I have to do?" Clint smirks

"Prove yourself." He smiled.

"I'm too tired now, maybe later?"

"Sure." Loki smiled playfully. "Too busy last night?"

Clint sighs. "Don't mention it Loki."

"Sorry. Why were you that drunk anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well you must have been off your face."

"Loki… let's talk about something else…."

"Sorry, what do you want to talk about?"

"I dunno, anything else…"

"Well… actually we need to talk about the biting."

Clint laughs. "What about it?"

"Well, my parents are in town, and people are starting to notice, so Thor says we have to stop." He huffed.

Clint sighs. "But- Okay, fine!"

"Hey! Not my fault, I don't care if people see!"

"I have to stop because of your parents! I don't care either, I love biting you!"

Loki smiles shyly. "Well if we think about it the problem is people seeing, right?"

"Yeah, but it's your parents pretty boy!"

"True, so, let's just bite where no one can see until my parents get out of town!"

"Sounds like a plan!" He grinned.

Loki smirks. "I am full of good idea's!"

"Stop it Loki!"

"What?"

"Complementing yourself, it's my job to do that!"

"Well by all means." Loki smirks.

"Okay well, I love you so much, you're hot, you're flawless and perfect, you're great in bed, your personality is amazing -"

Loki blushed. "O.k. alright that's enough, I get it."

"Oh god, look at you! You're so cute when you blush!"

"No I'm not!" Loki said, blushing harder.

"Oh god, look at you! You're so cute!"

"No I'm not, I am many things Clint Barton; cute is not one of them!"

"Yes it is! I'm older than you so I can call you whatever I want!"

"Nuh huh! You are not pulling the age card!"

"Yes I am! You're mine so I can say whatever I want!"

"But- Well, o.k. You go me there, but you're mine too!"

"No, you're mine!"

"And you're mine! Just 'cos I'm younger doesn't mean I can't own you!"

"Fine! I'm yours, but you're still mine!"

"Good. That's settled then."

"Gosh I love you!""

"I love you too idiot." Loki smirks gently.

Clint holds Loki tighter, Loki purrs slightly and snuggles up. Clint smiles. "Do you wanna sleep over?"

"Definitely, I'm keeping an eye on you."

"Oh, I was planning on punching Steve when you left."

"I'd like to be around when you did that, you trying to get rid of me?"

"No, I'm just not ready to tell them about you."

"That's o.k, I can't exactly complain."

"You with your parents, me with my co- workers…"

"And all this started with you forcing yourself on me, not that I mind of course"

"I'm sorry for not being able to resist you…"

"Meh, most can't." Loki shrugged smugly.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

Loki smirked. "And we know no one can resist you, we must be destined for each other.

"Yep, we complete each other."

"Absolutely." Loki grinned, Clint grinning back.

"Hmm… What do you wanna do?"

"I dunno, what do you wanna do?"

"Be with you…"

"Good plan." Loki snuggles closer. Clint closes his eyes, the both of them managing to fall asleep in minutes.

There's a flash of steel, a cry of pain, flashes of red and Loki wakes with a start, whimpering and crying in the dark room, body slick with sweat. Clint wakes next to him when he hears the noise.

"Loki, what's wrong?"

"N-nightmare." Loki said, voice and body shaking, Clint hugs him tightly.

"Ssshh… It's alright." Clint whispers in his ear. Loki whimpers and clings tightly. Clint pulls him back to the bed.

"You'll be alright, I'm with you." He holds him close. Loki nods, drying his eyes. "Everything's going to be alright…" Clint repeats, Loki nods again, curling up small. Clint kisses his forehead.

"It- it- was about you." Loki whimpered.

"What happened?" Clint held him tight.

"You were killed on a mission, I couldn't stop it." Loki says, almost crying again.

"That's not gonna happen Loki. Just a bad dream." Clint whispers. Loki nods, curling up smaller.

"It was horrible."

"Shhhh… It's alright…"

Loki nods. "I know, I know."

"Go back sleep, alright?"

"Uh huh." He doesn't move but closes his eyes, Clint following suit, Loki somehow managing to fall asleep before him.

In the morning Clint opens his eyes and finds Loki still asleep like a baby on his chest. "Pretty boy, wake up." He whispers.

Loki stirs and wakes. "Morning."

Clint slowly moves out of the bed and starts walking towards the bathroom. "I have to work babe."

"Uh huh." He rubs his eyes. "I'll get outta here, see you tonight?"

"Hope so!" Clint steps in the bathroom and starts to shower while Loki gets up and leaves. When Clint gets out of the shower there's a knock on the door, he opens it; a towel around his waist. Steve stands there.

"Does she know?"

"Yes."

"She's o.k with it?" Steve smirks.

"What do you want Rodgers?" Clint says angrily.

"Just checking." He runs his eyes shamelessly down Clint's chest. Clint ignores him and walks back in his room, Steve following.

"Why the cold shoulder?"

"Steve, forget about what happened, understand?

"I have, you keep bringing it up!"

Clint sighs. "What do you want?"

"Oh… nothing." He says innocently.

"Then get out!"

"Yikes! Stressy! What happened, you sleep on the couch or something?"

"No I didn't, I just want you to leave me alone before I punch you in the face!"

Steve raises and eyebrow. "I just want the truth."

"Get out, I need to get dressed."

"Aww, but I like the view." Steve smirks; Clint gives him the glare of death.

"Steve, I'm serious."

Steve pouts. "Fine, Jesus, not like it's doing any harm, I've seen it all before." Clint sighs and goes to the bathroom, puts on his boxers, and gets out; looking for pants and a shirt, Steve watches like a predator watches it's prey. Clint puts on his pants and turns to him.

"What do you want? Leave me alone!"

"I'm not doing anything!"

"Just you breathing around me bothers me."

"Ouch." Steve pulls a mock pain face. "Your words wound me."

Clint pulls on his shirt. "What do you want?"

"The truth!"

"What about?"

"About this girl! You don't say anything!"

"I don't want to! Deal with it!"

"No!"

"Steve! You're just a one night stand!"

"Two- night." Steve smirked.

"Whatever, now leave!"

Steve sighs. "I'll see you round." He walks out the door, _oh boy wait 'till Nat heard about this!_ Clint sighs and walks out ten minutes later; Steve is chatting with Natasha in the main room, he walks past, ignoring them both, walking to the cafeteria to get something to eat.

Steve turns to Natasha. "…I'm no closer to finding out about mystery girl though."

"Maybe 'she's' not a girl…"

"Ah! That would explain a lot… who though?"

"I have no idea… Tony?"

"Maybe…"

Clint bumps into Maria and she smiles at him. "Hey Clint! How are you?"

"Urgh, fine, what about you?"

"I'm alright, mission brief went well."

"Good, good."

"So… nothing I need to know?"

"What? Not more rumours!"

'Things travel." She shrugged.

"So you haven't heard anything?"

"Well I've heard things, I choose to ignore them."

"What things?"

"You and Steve for one."

"When did you hear it?"

"Natasha and I were chatting… this morning."

Clint sighs and walks away, looking for Steve, he finds him in the briefing room, chatting to Natasha again; he attacks him quickly and starts throwing punches.

"Whoa! OW! What the fuck?!" Steve yelps and Clint punches his nose, making it

bleed.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" He punches him again.

"Hey! Your boyfriend might like it rough but I don't!" Steve snarls, Clint punches him again and shoves him against the wall. "What did I just say!? Fuck!"

"Listen here! You stop spreading rumours about me, understand!?"

"Jeez! My mother told me not to lie!" He smirked, holding his nose. Clint punched him yet again and people started to come, trying to make Clint stop, Steve is yelling loudly.

"He just attacked me!"

"Stop ruining my reputation you son of a bitch!" He yells back.

"Ruining it? Used to be you wouldn't stop gloating!" He continues shouting as Clint is pulled off him.

"I'm not done Rodgers!" He yells and starts to walk away.

"That's what I thought!" Steve yells back, seething with rage.

Clint walks back to his room, blood all over his hands, and bumps into Tony.

"Oh great! Just what I need!"

Tony raises an eyebrow. "Do I wanna know?"

Clint looks at his hands. "Shit."

"Right. Well I'm guessing that's why the boss wants to see you…"

Clint sighs. "Just try to punch Rodgers for me, I wasn't done." He walks smartly to Fury's office and opens the door after knocking.

"Clint. Sit. Now." Clint sits and sighs. "Want to explain what the fuck you were doing? Think carefully before you answer."

"I'm sorry boss."

"That's not what I asked you for."

"It's personal, alright?"

"I want you to explain. Now."

"No! It's personal!"

"Personal? Oh I see, well how about you put your namby- pamby feelings aside and explain why the fuck you attacked a fellow agent?!"

Clint sighs. "Just drop it boss, it won't happen again."

"It better not! Because if it does you'll be short of a job, you hear?"

"Fine!" He sighs and stands up.

"I did not dismiss you."

Clint inhales deeply and sits down again.

"I want to see the both of you in my office tomorrow morning."

"Fine, but I'm not telling him, can I go now?"

"Yes. Don't be late."

Clint stands and walks to the door, reaching for the door handle. "Oh, and Clint?"

"Yeah?" he turns back to him.

"Next time you sleep with an agent I will have your job."

Clint walks towards him. "That's the problem, that's why I punched him; he took advantage of me when I was drunk!"

Fury nods. "I see. You may go now." He waves Clint out, Clint sighs and walks in the direction of his room.

Loki is lying on his bed; feigning sickness so his parents don't see the bites, when Clint showers and finally turns up at Loki's place. Loki hears the doorbell, _oh shit, he wouldn't…_ Clint knocks again and Loki sprints to the door, pushing him outside.

"Shit, Clint, my parents are back!"

Clint sighs. "Alright, alright, I'm here for Thor."

"And your neck?"

"Urgh, fine, I'll see you later." Clint sighs and turns away.

"No! We can climb through my window!" Loki pulls at him.

"It's fine, I'll go back, I'm tired anyway."

"Aw please? I missed you!"

"Alright, what am I gonna do?" Clint asks.

"I'll give you a leg up; climb that drain, think you can handle that?"

Clint sighs. "I hope so." Loki puts one hand over the other without interlocking his fingers.

"Up you go!"

When they finally make it up to Loki's room Loki flops on the bed and giggles. "That was fun!"

Clint smiles. "Yeah right!"

"What? Scared of a few cuts and bruises?" Loki teases.

Clint mumbles. "You haven't seen anything yet."

"Don't you dare… a broken arm is all you're allowed."

"What about broken knuckles."

A thoughtful expression crosses Loki's face. "Hmmm… Only if I can make it all better."

"Oh yeah? How?"

"Kisses of course!" Loki grins.

"Is your door locked?"

Loki jumps up and locks it. "Yep!"

"Good, now come here." Clint smirks and Loki does as he's told and sits on the bed. "You make me forget about everything when I'm with you." Clint smiles.

"Good, don't you dare suffer in silence, I wanna make it all better!" Loki smiles back, Clint leans and kisses him deeply, Loki kisses back hard. Clint pulls back, apologetic look in his eyes.

"I can't stay here you know, I have a very important meeting in the morning, I can't be late."

Loki pouts. "That sucks."

"Sorry." He kisses him again.

"Not your fault." He sighs and kisses him fast, making the most of the time they had.

At midnight Clint starts to shift and grab his clothes, pulling them on and getting out of the bed. Loki whimpers and wakes.

"Going so soon?"

"I have to, sorry babe."

"Will I see you tomorrow?"

"I don't really know, hey can I use the door this time?"

"Sure, just don't get caught!"

"Alright, love you!" He smiles and leaves Loki's room.

"Love you too." He whispers, falling back on the bed.

In the morning Loki forgets everything and goes down to breakfast as normal, Thor clears his throat, trying to get Loki's attention, Loki looks up sleepily.

"Huh?"

"Your neck!" Thor whispers.

"Shit!" He turns up his collar and runs up to his room before his parents arrive. Thor chuckles and shakes his head.

Meanwhile in the briefing room Steve and Natasha are giggling and passing notes to each other.

"Kids!" Clint snaps, earning another snort from them. Finally Fury arrives and barks at everyone. "All out! Except Barton and Rodgers. Now!" Everyone leaves whilst Clint and Steve slump into the chairs at the front, Clint shuffling away from Steve. Fury sits.

"Now, you two wanna shake hands and make up, maybe a hug?" Fury says, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Not really." Clint says calmly.

"I do not need my agents squabbling, so can you work together or not?"

"No!" Clint accidentally snaps,

Fury raises and eyebrow. "What was that?"

"Sorry boss, but no." Clint sighs.

Fury frowns. "So what do we do about this mess?" Both boys avoid his eye contact.

"Look at me both of you! You used to get along just fine!"

"It just happens that this guy next to me decides to rape me while I'm asleep and ruin my reputation!"

Steve's eyebrows shot up. "Hey that's not true!"

"Yes it is!" Clint snaps.

"I only told Natasha! And anyways you said I could!"

"I sai- I told you to keep your mouth shut! Goddamnit!"

"It was just Natasha!" Steve counters.

Fury groans. "Children, I am dealing with children!"

"So what if it was Natasha? You knew she'd tell everyone!"

"SILENCE!" Fury roars. "ENOUGH!" Clint sighs and sits back. "I have had enough! You both need to grow up, I'm moving you both to different sections!"

"No! Move him out!" Clint shouts. "He raped me boss!"

"And you beat him!" Now enough, both of you! Steve! You take four section; paperwork might cool you off! Clint you're in three section; get you out of here as much as possible!"

"I'm not done with you Rodgers!" Clint gives him the glare of death.

"You may not be within two stations of each other! You hear?!"

"I'm still not done with him!" Clint snaps and stands up.

"You are dismissed!" Fury glares. "But you Clint! You are suspended for three weeks! Without pay!"

"WHAT!?" Clint yells.

"You heard! Dismissed!"

"THIS IS BULLSHIT!"

"I SAID DISMISSED!"

"OH WAIT, WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO GO NOW? YOU KNOW WHAT? FINE! GREAT! AT LEAST I WON'T GET RAPED WHEN I'M DRUNK! SUCKERS!" Clint yells and walks out of the office, slamming the door. Fury blinks.

"Get him on a mission the second he gets back. A hard one!" Fury adds for good measure.

Everyone stares at Clint as he walks away, he goes to his room and starts packing when someone knocks on the door. He goes and opens it, Loki is standing there, hands on hips.

"You know, sometimes it'd be nice if you weren't in trouble." He had obviously heard the commotion from Fury's office on his way up.

"Not now!" He says angrily.

Loki's smile fades. "What's wrong?"

"I just got suspended for three damn weeks!"

"What! That's bullshit!"

"I know!" He walks inside and continues packing. Loki closes the door behind him and walks up to him.

"Hey, easy!" He rubs Clint's shoulders. "Calm down."

"No! I'm not gonna calm down Loki! It's not easy for me!"

"Hey, it's o.k, it's me, just talk to me."

Clint lets out a long sigh. "This sucks. Big time!"

"Yeah, I know." He sits Clint down and continues rubbing his shoulders. Clint runs a hand through his hair.

"And I'm being moved to three section!"

"Three section? What's that?"

"It means that I'm changing location in the tower; another floor, and another room!"

Loki sighs and places his head on the back of Clint's neck. "I'll give you a hand moving?"

"It's alright, I don't have that much stuff, thanks though."

"It's o.k." Loki sighs. "You o.k?"

Clint flashes him a small smile. "Yeah…"

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Loki notices the dark bruises and cuts forming on Clint's hands. "What the Hel?"

"What?"

"Your hands!"

"I got in a fight with Steve…"

Loki smiles. "Well at least you got them for a good reason." He kisses Clint's knuckles.

"Yeah, it was worth it." He smiles.

"Damn straight." He smirks. Clint leans and kisses his check.

"I have to pack. pretty boy, then I have to talk to Fury, so how about I come over when I'm done?"

"O.k." He stands. "Can I have a kiss?" Loki grins and Clint smiles back before kissing him passionately, Loki gasps and licks his lips.

"You'd better come over."

Clint nods. "I'll try my best." He promises. Loki smiles and walks out the door.

When Clint has finished packing he goes to Fury's office. Fury is sitting at his desk, drumming his fingers. "Sit."

"I thought we were done." He huffs and sits.

"So did I until you made one to many smart- ass comments." He chucks a file at him.

"Am I fired?"

"Nope, new mission."

Clint groans. "Please tell me no one is coming with me."

"Nope, just you and six weeks of work."

"SI- WHAT!? WHY?!"

"That's how long it'll take, not like you got anywhere to be."

"Yeah actually I do…"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah!"

"Where?"

"Just…" _shit_. "Somewhere…"

"Where?"

"Uhh… where's my new room, you never said." Clint says quickly.

"Third floor, room B."

He stands up. "Great."

"Report for duty in three weeks, don't forget to pack."

"Oh wait Boss… C'mon, seriously? Six?"

"I can make it seven…"

"No, no, I just- you know… have people who care about me… please make it less? I'm one of your best agents!"

"With a big mouth! Who is it?"

"Uhm… sorta a girlfriend."

"Girlfriend? Not an agent I hope."

"Nah, no one is good for me here, no offence."

"I can make it four, 'cos I like you.'" Fury snorts.

Clint grins. "What about three? Pretty please?"

"Three and a half, don't push it!"

"Alright, thanks… where is it?"

"In here, briefing in three weeks, the information is strictly need to know."

"This is so confusing." Clint looks confused then walks out of the office. Fury sighs and rubs his forehead.

"I swear to God, one of these days…"


	5. Don't touch the pizza!

_Yeah, I know, this is two days late, I'm sorry, I'll get better, I'm really busy and stuff, lots more coming up, I've lost my notebook so I need that for my notes for my other stories but I shall do my best!_

Clint waits for the elevator with his stuff, unfortunately for him Steve walks up to the same elevator… Clint curses under his breath.

"You meant to be here?" Steve asks, Clint pointedly ignores him. "Hello?"

"Do you want another fight Rodgers?"

"Not really, do you want to loose your job?"

"Worthless son of a bitch."

"Manslut."

"Rapist!" Clint snaps and gets into the empty elevator as it arrives.

Steve raises an eyebrow and keeps clear of the doors, waiting for the next one. "Say 'hi' to your boyfriend for me.." He ads before the doors shut. Clint grins and gives him the finger.

"Hilarious."

"I'm no joker." Steve smirks as the doors begin to shut. Clint sighs and Steve forces the doors open.

"You could have told me."

"Told me what?"

"About him."

"Why would I?" Clint realises his mistake and adds, "How do you know it's a boyfriend?"

"Me and Nat figured it on."

"Well, you're wrong smartass."

"Oh am I, I doubt it." Steve says smugly. Clint ignores him and Steve moves from the elevator. Clint lets the doors shut without another word.

Loki is still avoiding his parents, he knocks on Thor's door. There is a shout from inside and Loki opens it.

"It's me." He steps in the room, shutting the door behind him. "So I need to think of a lie that'll get me out of the house for three weeks."

Thor frowns. "Why?"

"'Cos Clint got suspended."

Thor gasps. "Why?"

"For fighting with Steve." Loki grinned proudly.

"I thought… Anyway… Tell them you're getting out of town."

"Yeah, but why? You know them, they'll never just let me out… you thought what?"

"Nothing, just tell them that you're going out of town with some friends."

"O.k." He sat on the edge of Thor's bed and sighed.

"What?" Thor asked.

"Nothing, it's been a while since we chatted that's all."

"Oh.. yeah.."

Loki smiled. "So, how's things?"

"Not bad, really…" He smiles back. "What about you?"

"Fine, Clint's really upset about this whole thing, but he'll be fine."

"Yeah… I bet he's having a rough time."

"He'll be o.k. I am supervising after all." He smirked.

"Good." Thor rolled his eyes.

"And I talked to him about the biting!"

Thor snorts. "Finally!"

"Although we do have three weeks to ourselves…" A far off look crosses his face. "… Don't worry, I'll give them time to heal!"

"Good." Thor shakes his head.

"What? What problems do you have with it now?"

"Nothing, it's just disgusting…"

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is, it's my brother and my best friend, it's like imagining your par- never mind."

"…Oh. I see." Loki giggles. "Oh dear that's why… ehehe." He giggles again, Thor snorts and laughs. Loki grins, still laughing.

"Alright, I promise to keep the biting low… on visible area's…"

"…That's even more disgusting." Thor stopped smirking.

"Well you can't see it!"

"Urgh, stop talking about it…"

"Fine, fine." He smiles. "What do you want to talk about then?"

"Anything that doesn't involve biting…"

"Damn, well that's me outta idea's." Loki smirked. Thor snorts. "How are the others?" Loki asks. "I haven't seen them in a while."

"Volstagg's hungry, as usual, Sif's… feisty… yeah, Hogan's sombre and Fandrahl's… well, he's Fandrahl…" He smiles. "Everyone's fine…"

Meanwhile in Clint's room, someone knocks on the door, Clint groans but goes to open it, he's surprised when find Natasha there.

"Hey Clint, can I come in?"

"What do you want?"

"I just wanted to say I never meant for it to go this far, o.k?

"Oh please!" Clint sighed.

"Like I knew what Steve was gonna do!"

"Yeah, right, are you done? Good." He starts closing the door but Natasha put her foot in the way.

"Hey, listen to me, we're friends! I'm out, o.k. I'm gonna stop prying, and I'm sorry about Steve." Natasha sighs, Clint just huffs and rolls his eyes.. "I am." Natasha assured him.

"As if that'll make it any better. You know what? To make you shut up, thanks Nat, that really helped, my reputation is ten times better!"

"What is it with you?! I'm your friend, we all are, maybe Steve went to far but I haven't done anything! You're shutting yourself off from everyone, I just hope they're worth it!"

"Oh, did I just hear say that you're my friend?" Clint laughs cruelly. "Alright 'friend' would you please leave, 'cos I've had enough crap for one a day."

Natasha looks at him and sighs. "Give me a call when you're ready to talk like a grown up."

"Oh! Yeah right!" He sneers and shuts the door. Natasha sighs and walks off, _whoever this person is, Clint's in deep…_

…"Right I'm gonna go pack, tell mom and dad I'm with friends, yeah?" Loki says,

Thor nods. "Alright Loki, have fun. No bites."

"None that you shall see." Loki says with a smirk and leaves Thor's room before he can throw something at his younger brother. Thor snorts.

"Disgusting!"

Loki packs quickly and hurries to the tower, knocking on Clint's door. Clint opens it, frown quickly replaced by a smile when he sees who it is.

"Hey!"

"Hey." Loki smiles. "I'm all yours for the next three weeks!"

Clint grins. "Really?"

"Yep! But we have to tone down bites on visible area's so they heal before I go back." Loki smiles apologetically and drops his bags by the door. Clint grabs him close, pinning him against the door and kissing him hard. Loki deepens it, only breaking the kiss for air.

"Bloody Hel I've missed you!"

Clint grins. "It was less than twenty four hours!"

"Shows what an impression you've made!"

"Yeah, well, I need someone to… you know…" He grins and kisses him again.

Loki smirked. "Like I said, all yours."

"Damn right." Clint said, attaching his mouth to Loki's neck and making sure that Loki damn well knew it.

In the morning Loki snuggles closer, to a still sleeping Clintt, he looks over deciding not to wake him and watches him sleep. Clint starts moving suddenly and falls off the bed.

"Ouch…"

"You genius." Loki purred, helping him up, Clint laughs.

"What time is it?"

"Ten O'clock, I let you sleep in."

"Thank you Loki." Clint chuckles and climes back into bed, falling back asleep, Loki curls up closer, quite content to lie there all day. Until he gets hungry. He pokes Clint at twelve thirty.

"Hey, I'm hungry."

"Hmmm?" Clint says sleepily.

"Lunch time!" Loki grins down at him.

"No, no, let me sleep, there's food in the fridge." He pulled the covers over his head.

Loki sighs. "You are not fading away while I'm here." Loki pulls on his boxers and gets up.

"Come and eat! There's some leftover pizza…"

Clint groaned, signalling that he wasn't gonna move. "That leftover pizza… well…"

"Yeah?" Loki's voice sounded from the kitchen.

"It's from the night Steve raped me so don't eat it…"

"Ewww…" The sound of the bin lid is heard. "Bye, bye pizza." A few minutes later he walks in with two sandwiches and gives Clint one. "Here. Eat." Clint laughs and takes the sandwich, pulling on his boxers. Loki chuckles. "I promised Thor I'd take care of you."

"Oh really? Good, cause I need someone to take care of me, since af- Oh, Loki?"

Loki finishes his sandwich. "Uh huh?"

"After my suspension… I have a mission."

Loki sits next to him looking worried. "How long?"

"Well… it was supposed to be six weeks, but I told him I have someone who loves me and he made it four, and I told him that I'm one of his finest and he made it three and a half… At least Steve isn't coming."

Loki squeaks. "Three and a half? I can barely go a week, shit I can barely go a day!" He groans, Clint lays his head on Loki's shoulder.

"It's alright…"

Loki cuddles closer. "No, it's not."

"Yeah, you'll get used to it…"

"No I won't." His voice breaks. "I can't write or phone, what if you get hurt?!"

"I'll be just fine, Loki, I'm really good at missions, come on! Ask Thor! I rarely get hurt!"

"Broken arm?" Loki says softly.

"Yeah well, it just happens that I broke my arm on my first mission when I was with you!"

"It was one week!" Loki flops back onto the bed. "It's not fair!"

"Loki, I won't get hurt I promise!"

"I don't want you to go! Ever!"

"Loki, I'll be just fine! Don't worry!"

"I do worry." Loki sighed.

"Well, I'm all yours for three weeks before the mission!"

"You're all mine anyway.

"Damn right."

Loki smiled. "Just don't do anything stupid."

"I won't, look on the bright side, Steve won't be there!"

"Good." Loki growls.

Clint smirks and wraps his arms around Loki's waist, who leans into him and kisses him deeply, Clint moans into it and pulls closer, making the other boy whimper as he puts his hands to Clint's face.

"Three weeks?" Let's make the most of it." He smirks. Clint smirks back, nodding and pushing him onto his back. Someone nocks on the door. Loki jumps under the bed as Clint pulls some clothes on and goes to answer it, he finds Fury standing there.

"Yes boss?"

"Updates on your mission." He thrusts them at him. "You might be out there longer than we thought, depends on how much re-con you can gather. Also Steve' been moved next door, play nice."

"Wait… what?"

"The mission's changed, as have circumstances, if the information you provide proves what we fear you could be out there a while."

"You mean longer than three weeks and a half?"

"… A lot longer."

"But- WHY?!"

"Because it's your job! You knew the risks when you joined!"

"Goddamnit! How long?"

"Less weeks, more… months…"

"WHAT?! I mean, I've been in longer, but why now?" He frowns.

"Hey, I don't know, it all depends on the rec-con! This is very important, I need my best men."

"Excuse me? Men? Who else is coming with me?"

"… That's undetermined."

"What do you mean?"

"We're still carrying out extensive tests, most likely Tony or Natasha."

Clint sighs in relief. "I'll take anyone as long as it's not Rodgers… I recommend Tony though… just saying."

Fury nods. "I can't trust you and Rodgers to get along, and this is… delicate…"

"How am I going to tell hi- I mean, yeah, alright, we done here Boss?"

"Yes." Fury's eyebrow is raised. "And tell whoever's under the bed that information was top secret."

Clint chuckles. "See you later Boss." He shuts the door and Loki peepes out.

"Oops."

Clint runs his fingers through his hair. "You didn't hear anything, right?"

"Not a word." He pretended he hadn't heard about his mission, playing it off to bad hearing. "What'd he say?"

Clint huffs. "Well… my mission… it might be longer…."

Loki's eyes narrow as he realises he heard right. "How much longer?" He genuinely hadn't heard this bit.

"… Months…"

"Nonononononono… you can't go!"

"I'm sorry!" He pulls him into a hug. Loki hugs back tighter.

"I won't let you!"

"I'm so sorry Loki." He whispers into his ear.

"No, it's o.k, he won't let you go, right?" He looks at Clint desperately.

"Loki, it's my job, I have to go! I have no choice!"

Loki whimpers. "I know."

"I'm so sorry…"

"Not your fault." He sniffs slightly. "This sucks."

"I know." He kisses Loki's cheek, Loki clings to Clint and tucks his head into his neck.

"AlsoSteveisnextdoor." Clint says quickly. Loki growls and Clint smiles and kisses him again.

Loki giggles. "Do you think if we make enough noise he'll get the message and leave you alone?"

Clint chuckles. "Maybe!"

"Only one way to find out." He smirks. Clint smirks back and kisses him again. Loki grins.

"We've got a few weeks to let things heal." Loki purred, sitting himself in Clint's lap.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Clint smirks again, Loki grins and kisses him hard. Clint sighs and pulls away apologetically. "I have to talk to Tony before they decide to send Natasha with me."

Loki sighs. "I'll wait here, hurry back! I have need of you."

"Alright, Alright." He smirks and stands up, changing his clothes. Loki watches openly, throwing glances of approval his way. Clint goes to the door and smiles at him. "Stay here, love you!" He leaves and shuts the door, looking for Tony, he approaches 'Mr. Stark's room' as it says on the door. and knocks, a voice sounds from inside.

"Yello? Come in!"

Clint sighs in relief and walks in. "Hey Tony."

"Hey Clint! What can I do for you?"

"I kinda need a small favour… can you be my partner for my mission?" He asks quickly.

"Yeah, sure, why?"

Clint sighs in relief. "Thank god! Thank you! It's just I was worried they'd give me Natasha or Roders…"

"Ah, yeah, no problem mate, sorry about what's happened." The air turns awkward.

"Uh, yeah, don't worry… Okay , see you round." With a grateful smile he leaves, only to bump into Natasha, Natasha sees who it is and her angry expression fades as she mutters her apology. Clint inhales deeply.

"Watch where you're going next time Natasha."

"I'm sorry… uh." She clears her throat. "I hear you got that mission to Peru."

"Yeah." He says simply.

"Well, good luck I guess."

"Thanks, see you around, or maybe not." He mutters.

Natasha sighs. "I'm sorry Clint, I don't know what you want me to say, I went to far, but come on, it wasn't me!"

"Goddamnit Natasha!" He snaps. "You know what? Forget it." He walks away from Natasha looks after him, puzzled. _What the hell?_ Clint goes to the elevator, ignoring her, she walks up to him.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, everything is perfectly perfect, now would you leave me alone Natasha?"

She sighs again. "If you say so… why can't we go back to being friends?"

"Because we can't. You're like a kid. Just go back to Steve and stay away from me!"

"I- you act like I had any idea what Steve was gonna do! Newsflash! I didn't!"

"Whatever. Oh, and Tony is my partner in the mission, not you." He steps in the elevator.

Natasha follows him, and looks at him frustratedly. "And you call me a kid!"

"Yeah I do!"

"What is wrong with you? Aren't you forgetting every other time you took a joke to far and I laughed it off? I've done nothing!"

"Is that right? You were the one who kept spreading rumours about me sleeping with Steve!"

"No I didn't! I haven't told anyone!"

"Oh yeah, right."

"I haven't! It was Steve!"

"And you!" He snaps.

"No it wasn't." She snaps back. "It was all Steve! I've done nothing!"

"Fine. Now would you leave me alone?" He steps out of the elevator at his floor.

"We need to talk. When you've grown up, come find me!"

"Yes ma'am!" he snaps and keeps a walking to his room. Natasha throws her hands up in frustration and walks back to her own room.

Loki is waiting for Clint when he gets back and walks over. "Hey!"

"Hey! Thank God, Tony will be my partner!"

"Great!" He grins. "Told you everything would be fine." Clint grins at the remark and kisses him again, Loki smirking at him.

"I just had a fight with Natasha." He says into the kiss.

"Uh huh? Who won?" He wraps his arms around Clint.

"Well… I guess it was me." He smirks proudly.

"That's my boy." He pats his head.

Clint grins, "You wanna grab a bite?"

Loki raises an eyebrow. "Oh, you mean food, sure."

Clint laughs. "We'll go eat first, and ten we can get back and bite each other." He winks.

"I like that plan." Loki licks his lips.

"Come on then, let's go." He pulls Loki to the door; who pulls back suddenly.

"You sure no one will see? I still have marks…"

"Oh, well, why don't you wear one of my jackets?"

"O.k." Loki grabs a black leather one and turns up the collar. "How do I look?"

Clint smirks. "Perfect."

"Great." Follows him out. "Where are we going?"

"I don't know really. There's a small coffee shop somewhere down here…"

"Sounds great." He smiles. Clint leads them to an empty elevator, as they step inside Loki is fighting the strong urge to hold Clint's hand, he starts to whistle instead. Clint smirks and looks at Loki.

"What?"

"Nothing." Loki stops whistling.

Clint raised an eyebrow. "Alright…" Loki shrugs and tucks his hands into his pockets for something to do with them. At that moment the elevator beeped and they could get out, Loki falling into step beside Clint as he leads him to the coffee shop.

"Do they have sandwiches? I'm not hungry for pizza…" He said, eyeing the sign which advertised '2 for 1' slices.

"Don't worry, I'm not into pizza anymore!" He growls.

"Good." Loki smiled. "Me neither." Clint smiles back as they reach the till, meeting a man called 'Ben' according to his nametag, Loki beamed at him.

"Right, two coffee's, two ham sandwiches, anything else?" Clint shakes his head and pays before Loki can. "Hey! I was gonna pay!" Loki complains.

Clint raises an eyebrow. "Not when you're with me!"

"But I wanted to." Loki pouts.

Clint smirks. "Not this time."

"Fine, but next time." Loki promises, taking his coffee from 'Ben'. "Be a dear and carry my sandwich."

"Yes sir." Clint grins and carries both his coffee and the sandwiches to their table. Loki smiles and sips his coffee.

"So where's the mission?"

"Oh, I didn't ask Fury, or maybe he said and I don't remember…"

Loki shrugged. "Just curious."

Clint sees right through him and smirks. "You're cute when you're worried."

Loki pouts. "How many times do we have to go over this? I am not cute!"

"Well you're right, you're not just cute, you're perfect!" Clint said and took a sip from his coffee.

Loki smiled shyly and blushed. "Come of it! We all know you are the one and only truly perfect being, or so they keep telling me."

"What!? Who?" Clint said, alarmed.

"I have no idea." He grins. "It's a saying, calm down."

"Oh, good. I can't wait to go back to the room so I can bite you, I never knew biting you would be so addictive!" He says, trying to make him blush. It works.

"Neither did I." He says,. Clint smirks while Loki sips his coffee, still bright red.

"Oh come on, look at you! You're blushing! How cute!" Clint laughs.

"Stop!" Loki squirms, going a very interesting shade of scarlet. "I'm not cute."

Clint laughs. "Yeah right!"

"I'm not!"

"Alright, alright." He's still laughing his head off. Loki grins and both men go back to eating their sandwiches. After a few seconds of comfortable silence Clint asks Loki, "So… no nightmares any more?"

"No, I don't know why I had that one, I haven't had one since… last time you went away."

"What? You used to have nightmares when I was away?"

"Yeah." Loki admits. "Like every night."

Clint raises and eyebrow. "But you know I'll be fine! So no nightmares this time, alright?"

"I'll do my best." He promises. "Not like I try to have nightmares."

"Just forget about me when I'm on mission, so you can sleep." Clint sips his coffee.

"Not possible, I can't help worrying you know." Loki sighs.

"Well here's an idea, you have my shirt, so just pretend that I'm around!"

Loki nods. "That's a pretty good idea."

"You know you can take anything that's mine, as long as it makes you feel better when I'm gone."

Loki nods. "I'll be fine."

"If you say so." Clint raises an eyebrow.

"I do." He finishes his sandwich. "You done?"

"Yep." Drains his cup and smiles.

"Shall we?" He stands up.

Clint smirks and stands. "Yeah, lets go, I miss biting you."

"I think I'm running low on marks anyway." Loki smirks back.

Clint starts walking Loki back to his room, thought Loki knows the way by now. "Good!" Loki follows him happily back to the tower, where they step in an elevator again, except this time Steve joins them, Clint doesn't say a word. Loki glances at Clint and mouths 'who's he?' Clint looks a little nervous and mouths back. 'Steve.' Loki's eyes narrow and he resists the strong urge to punch the blond in front of him, his hands balling into fists. Clint clears his throat. _Oh God, this is the longest elevator ride ever. _Loki is glaring at the back of Steve's head. Steve turns around and Loki looks away quickly, Steve looks at Loki, then Clint and smirks broadly, _finally_ the elevator arrives at the correct floor and all three step out, Loki with his head down, walking straight, Clint following as Steve walks smoothly to his room.

"Don't worry about him." Clint whispers.

"Just get me back before I punch him." He whispers back.

"I don't want to loose my job Loki." Clint said, opening the door to his room and pulling them both inside.

"That's the one reason he's not on the floor." Loki growls. Clint laughs and opens the bedroom door, Loki goes in and kicks his bag across the room. Clint grabs Loki by his arm.

"Look, I know you hate him, and I hate him more and I want to beat the hell out of him, but I can't." Loki nods, growling softly, Clint pulls him into a hug and whispers into his ear.

"Don't worry, I'm all yours.

"You'd better be, you deserve better than him."

"I only want you, Loki." He whispers in Loki's ear again. Loki seems reassured by his words.

"Good thing you can have me then."

"I still wanna bite you though…"

"By all means." He smirks. Clint starts to kiss him but there is another knock on the door.

"Are you kidding me?" He snaps. Loki growls at the door before hiding in the bathroom. Clint opens the door to find Steve.

"What do you want?"

"I'm guessing that's just a friend." Steve says sarcastically. Clint starts shutting the door slowly, but Steve puts his foot in the way. "Actually I did come for a reason."

Clint raises an eyebrow. "And what is that?"

"Nat seems really pissed off, almost upset, I'm guessing it's you, can you please sort it out, she's no fun."

"Yeah, not gonna happen."

Steve sighs. "Please? For old times sake?"

"Nope!" Clint folds his arms, Steve rolls his eyes.

"Real mature."

"Yep! Are you done now?"

"Pretty much, I could make fun of your boyfriend a bit if you'd like?"

"Leave." Clint says quietly, voice derived of emotion.

Steve raises his eyebrows but walks off. "Call me!" He shouts as he shuts the door next to Clint's.

Clint shuts his door. "Yeah, right!" Loki is sitting on Clint bed.

"What a prick."

"Urgh. I freaking hate him." He walks over to Loki.

"Me too, me too." Loki smiles as Clint laughs. "Now where were we?"

He walks right up to Loki. "I guess this is the part where I start kissing your neck!" He smirks.

"Oh, yes please." Loki smirks back. Clint starts to kiss Loki's neck. Loki whimpers softly.

"Don't worry about the noise." He grins. And yet again, like fate, there is a knock on the door. Clint sighs and quickly opens the door.

"What?!" He snaps. He clears his throat. "Oh, hey Maria."

Maria does _not_ look like she wants to be there. "hey Clint, Fury asked me to give you this, it's about your partner on the mission." She thrusts him the letter and walks off quickly. "I- I have to go!" Clint sigh, takes the letter and sits on the bed. Loki is sitting back on the bed behind him.

"What is it?"

Clint opens it. "I don't know, it's about my partner for the mission." He starts to read it. Loki is about to lean over and read it over his shoulder when Clint quickly stands. "Oh you're kidding me!" He leaves before Loki can ask what's wrong, storming to Steve's room, banging on the door, Steve opens it.

"Well hey, you should have said you were coming over, I'd have got pizza." He smirks.

"What's this?!" He snaps and hands him the letter.

Steve reads it quickly. "Oh my, this is…"

"You'd better be kidding me!" He drags Steve to the elevator.

"I didn't write it." Steve responded, following him into the elevator, rubbing his ear.

"This is not happening! You don't understand the hate I have for you!" He snaps.

"That's not what you were saying the other night." Steve smirks. Clint shoves him but remembers he'll lose his job and lets him go. "That's better." Steve smirks again. "No one said you had to be mean, I've been perfectly nice."

"Screw you, you son of a bitch!" He steps out of the elevator and walks quickly to Fury's office, Steve following him nonchalantly. When he enters Fury looks up and sighs, he knew this was coming.

"Please sit down." Steve sits but Clint looks at him, furious.

"No! You're joking, right?" He snaps.

"Unfortunately not, see the government has decided to get involved, upon highest orders, and as Steve has the second highest score on his record, he has to go with you, I've tried explaining without going into to much detail…" He nodded at Clint. "But they won't listen because those _mother fuckers_ think they know best."

"This is bullshit! Then take me out of the mission! I don't want this son of a bitch near me!"

Fury glares at him. "Do I look happy to you? Do I look like I want either of you two near each other? No, but I've lost control over this, sorry Clint."

"Oh yeah! As if sorry is gonna fix this shit!" He snaps.

"it is not my fault! Now, there is a small chance you can talk to the president and take Steve off, but you're going, like it or not."

"president? Seriously?" Clint looks taken back.

"Like I said, the nature of this mission is… delicate to say the least."

"Wait… we're in separate rooms, right? Please say we're not roommates!" He runs his hand through his hair nervously.

"No, absolutely not, I got them to agree to separate rooms."

Clint sighs. "Thank god! But… What happened to Tony? I want Tony, boss!"

Fury glares as Steve snorts. "Tony has been put on another mission." Fury ads under his breath. 'Partly due to his amazing social skills with people in high places.' He sighs. "I'm sorry Clint, this is out of my hands."

"This is bulshit!" He snaps and storms out of the office, slamming the door,

"Steve, I want you to know, any funny business and you'll be out of a job. Dismissed." Steve nods and walks out after Clint. They both step into the waiting elevator. "Listen to me Rodgers, if you touch me, bad things will happen! Even if I was drunk! I do stupid things when I'm drunk!"

"I know." Steve smirks. "I was there." He holds up his hands. "Relax, I do anything and I'm fired."

Clint sighs. "Manslut rapist!"

"Tease." He pokes out his tongue and stops the elevator, getting out a floor early.

"Ass!" he sighs. _Goddamnit he smells so good. Ew. Weird.. _

Loki is waiting anxiously for Clint and jumps as he comes in, slamming the door. "Clint! What happened?!" Loki asks worriedly.

"Steve is my freaking partner!" He says angrily.

"No." Loki says simply.

"This is bullshit!"

"This sucks!" Loki agrees, rubbing Clint's shoulders once again. "They can't make you! Not after what happened!"

"It's from the government!" Clint spits the word.

"Government Schmovernment! I don't care if it was the president, he can't make you!"

"You don't get it Loki!" He snaps.

"What?" Loki flinches slightly, unused to being shouted at.

"Gosh I'm sorry!" He pulls Loki closer, Loki hugs him back.

"Talk to me."

"I don't want Steve!"

"Of course not." He sushes him, whispering in his ear and slowly stroking his hair.

Clint huffs. "This is bullshit! I'm gonna kill him and tell them he died on the mission!"

Loki smirks. "Don't you think your boss'll see through that one?"

"I'm joking, I can't beat him and he can't touch me otherwise we're fired."

"Good." He growled. "At least they're doing something."

"Yeah."

Loki sighs. "Steve has fucked things up good and proper!"

"Urgh, let's not talk about him, I just want you."

"Well that's good then." He smiles. "Cos I just want you too."

And without anther word or any more interruptions (not that Clint would have answered the door anyway) Clint rather successfully, made Loki forget all about the mission, and any other worry he had lurking in his brain.


	6. Nice one Steve

-Three weeks and a lot of sex later-

Loki wakes up early and glances at the clock, muttering quietly. "Oh no…" Despite Loki's best efforts, this still wakes Clint, who groans and stirs.

"Urgh. What time is it?"

"Six thirty." Loki sighed. "Do you really have to go?"

Clint growls. "I'm sorry babe."

"At least phone me when you get there?"

"I don't know if I can, but I'll try my best."

Loki nods. "And don't get hurt, or drunk, or killed, or anything, not even a cold." Clint smiles and pulls him in for a kiss, Loki responds to it needily. "I'm not joking."

"Alright, alright. Don't worry." Clint grins.

"That's not gonna happen and you know it." Loki grins back.

"You have three of my shits now, so stop worrying!" Clint raises an eyebrow.

Loki raises his own eyebrow in retaliation. "No."

"Yes!" He sighs. "Urgh, I don't want to get out of bed!"

"Then don't." Loki smiles sadly.

Clint pouts. "I have to shower." He kisses him quickly and moves to the bathroom. Loki rolls so he can smell Clint on his pillows, game face faded completely; he's worried out of his mind.

A few minutes later, Clint gets out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist; Loki sits up and starts pulling on his own clothes. "Man I have gotten too used to this." He puts on a fake smile.

Clint smiles back. "Are you leaving?"

"Not yet, later I have to face my parents the better." Loki strokes his un-marked neck. Clint looks in the mirror attached to his closet and grins. "Wow, six hickeys and eight bites, lovely!"

"Lucky." Loki mutters. "At least I have some mementos." He looks down his shirt at his marked chest. "Don't forget to show Steve!"

Clint laughed. "Don't worry about it, I will."

Loki grins. "I've enough to worry about."

Clint pulls on his boxers and pants. "Oh shit! I forgot to ask Fury where the mission is!"

"You genius!" Loki grins. "Might wanna do that."

"Yeah, I should go ask him now, cos our ride's here in… half an hour!" He quickly pulls on his shirt and shoulders his bag.

Loki smiles. "See you soon-ish." Clint nods and walks out the door, suddenly remembering he didn't kiss Loki goodbye.

"Hey, don't I get a kiss?" He shouts back. Loki runs to the door and kisses him hard.

"Come back in one piece." Clint kisses him back, unknowing that Steve has just gotten out of his room and can see them.

"I will, I will!" He grins.

Loki smiles, notices Steve and grins broadly. "I'll hold you to that!" He walks away with a smug smirk. Clint smirks back, still not noticing Steve. "Bye babe." He turns around, finds Steve behind him, and jumps, _didn't see that coming_. Steve is staring, open mouthed.

"Uhm… you have the tickets?" Clint tries to break the ice, Steve nods, dumbfounded.

"Where are we going again?" He asks nervously.

"… P-Peru." Clint decides not to reply and grabs his stuff, headed to the elevator. Steve follows him and asks quietly. "Who is he?"

"None of your business." They both step into the elevator. Steve strains hard to remember where he's seen the boy before, he seems familiar, Clint nervously looks at his watch and then at his feet, Steve is still thinking. _Something to do with Jane…. _Suddenly it clicks. _Thor's brother! There was a picture on Jane's desk of them together. _Jane had befriended Steve upon meeting him when she and Thor had come to S.H.I.E.L.D. _Wait, wasn't homosexuality banned on- yes it is._ Steve tried to stop the smirk spreading on his face. _The kid'll be in trouble if anyone finds out…_

Steve stores this information away for later use as the doors open again. They both step out without saying a word. _Oh Clint you're in trouble now. _Clint remembers his hickeys and turns up his collar to hide them, _I'm so screwed._ But this time Steve does notice and he smirks. _Today is a good day._

"Hey, stop smirking, retard." Clint says defensively.

"No need to be mean." Too smug to be offended Steve pulls out his phone as the car pulls up. He texts Natasha. 'Got him.' Clint shakes his head and gets into the car; Steve sits next to him, humming softly. Natasha texts him back quickly. 'What do you mean?'

'I know who it is.'- Steve.

'Who?!' –Natasha.

'I'll tell you later, I have to make a phone call.'- Steve.

'Okay.'- Natasha.

Steve clears his throat. "So, when can we stop? I need to make a call."

"Don't know, don't give a shit." Clint says smartly.

"Ooh charming, someone was up all night!" He smirks. Clint nods and ignores him. Steve, sill smirking, asks the driver about stopping, Clint slowly falls asleep in the car, Steve looks over at him. _ Aww, like a little baby._ He pokes him to make sure he's asleep, Clint doesn't move. Steve pulls out his phone, if he's lucky… _Yes_! He has Thor's number from a party, _today is a very good day,_ he rings it. Thor answers the phone after three rings.

"Who is it?"

"Do his parents know?" Steve gets straight to the point.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play games, I'm assuming you know about your little brother and Clint, I am merely asking if your parents know."

"Yes, they know." Thor lies easily.

"Oh really, so it wouldn't matter if I dropped them a call?" He didn't have the number, but today was his day.

"Oh no, it doesn't matter, but stay away from people's personal problems." Thor hangs up.

Steve smirks. _Mission accomplished._ He texts Natasha. 'Thor's little brother.' _Oh dear Clint, your secret is out. _

Natasha texts back. 'No way!'

'Yes way!' –Steve

'Does Thor know about him?' –Natasha

'Yes, but good news, his parents don't. You know about Asgard…' –Steve

'Wait… you're doing all of this to get Clint.' –Natasha

'I doubt I'm gonna get him, not now anyway, I'm just being mean.' –Steve.

'Damn you, Rodgers, I'm trying to get our friendship back together!' –Natasha

'I'm not involving you, am I?' –Steve.

'Fine.' –Natasha

'Chat later, I think he's waking up.' –Steve

He puts the phone in his pocket and resumes humming. Clint breathes heavily, he sits and runs his hand through his hair. "Damnit."

"Bad dream?" He continues humming.

"Yeah." Starts to breathe normally.

"What about?" He inquires innocently.

"None of your business." Clint tilts his head back.

"I'm being nice, didn't anyone ever tell you sharing your nightmares stops them happening again?"

"No. It doesn't matter anyway." Clint sighs.

"Fine, you wanna talk, I'm here." He hums again happily. Clint shakes his head. The driver announces that they are five minutes from the airport.

"Good." Steve smiles and resumes the humming.

"Seriously, stop!" Clint snaps suddenly.

"What?"

"Stop humming!"

"O.k, Jeez, sorry." He taps his fingers on his knee.

"Urgh." Clint runs his fingers through his hair again.

"What am I doing now?" Steve complains. Clint sighs and ignores him. "Well I'm sorry I can't be as good as your boyfriend." Steve huffs.

"Oh shut up." Clint snaps, Steve folds his arms and sits back, eyes closed.

A few minutes later they arrive and they both drag their bags through security and emerge in the departures lounge.

"Which plane are we?"

"I don't know, you have the tickets you idiot!" Clint snaps, sick of people looking at them as though they were a couple.

"No need to be mean." He says again and pulls the tickets from his jacket. "Flight 21." Clint grabs the tickets and starts walking, mumbling loud enough for Steve to hear.

"Piece of shit."

"Seriously, enough with the insults, like it or not we're stuck with each other, we can at least be civil."

"Oh please shut up!" Clint snaps again and storms off. Steve follows, good mood not entirely ruined. Clint is frowning. _Goddamnit he smells so good, what the hell?_ Steve pulls out his phone and texts Natasha again. 'What's Thor's brothers name?'

'I don't remember.' -Natasha

'Damnit, who else would know?' –Steve

'I don't know Steve and you're getting creepy' –Natasha

'I just want to know his name!' –Steve

'I don't know, ask Clint.' –Natasha

'He won't say.' –Steve

'Well I don't know!' –Natasha

'Never mind, thanks anyway.' –Steve

'Sure,' –Natasha

Steve frowns slightly, as he puts the phone away. _Damnit,_ Clint is keeping ahead, trying his best to ignore Steve. They finally reach the plane and find their seats, Clint only had an hours sleep the last night so he looks shattered. Steve looks concerned.

"You should sleep."

"No, I'm fine."

Steve raises an eyebrow. "Anyone ever tell you you're a shit liar?"

"Whatever." He yawns, ignoring the question.

"See."

"I don't want to get raped again." Clint counters.

"We're on an aeroplane, besides I like my job."

"Right." He yawns again.

Steve rolls his eyes and tries texting Tony, all shield phones were fitted with 'aeroplane friendly' technology 'Hey man, you know Thor?' Tony is quick in response.

'Yeah, what about him?' –Tony

'What's his little brothers name? It's been bugging me all day.' –Steve

'Oh, it's starts with an 'L' I think.' –Tony

'Yeah, remember anything else, give us a call, like I said, it's been bugging me all day.' –Steve

'Alright man.' –Tony

Steve put away the phone again while Clint tries not to fall asleep. "Hey, how long is the flight?" He says hoping talking will wake him up.

"I dunno, two/ three hours?" Steve checks his watch.

"Alright." He sighs and mutters to himself. "No sleeping. Focus. Stay awake."

"You need to rest." Steve interrupts him.

"No."

"Yes."

"Steve it's not like you care. I'll rest when I have a bed."

"Course I care, need you fit and healthy for the mission!" he jokes.

"Oh please."

"Look, I care anyway, alright?"

"Whatever. Wake me up if I fall asleep."

"Fine." He sighs. "Just don't get grouchy… -er." Clint sighs and ignores him.

Meanwhile Loki is lying face down on his bed trying not to think about Clint. It isn't working. Thor knocks on the door and walks in.

"Loki!" Thor walks to his bed, Loki sits up an wipes his eyes.

"Thor?"

"Listen to me, you have to tell mom and dad!"

"What?! No. Nononono."

'It's either you tell them, or Steve does."

"What!? How the fuck does he know?! We've never met!" he mutters quietly. "Well, not officially…"

"I don't know! But you have to tell them!" He sighs.

"They'll skin me! Worse, they'll skin Clint."

"Well you have to do something about it!"

"Strangle Steve?" Loki says straight-faced.

"Not killing someone?"

"Cut the phone lines?"

"Not a bad idea…"

"But when they're fixed… I need to talk to Clint." He pulls out his phone and dials the number. "Come on, pick up…"

Thankfully Clint hadn't fallen asleep and picked up. "Hey." He whispered.

"Clint we need to talk."

"Now?"

"Steve knows and he's gonna tell my mom and dad unless I do."

"What?!" Clint snaps, everyone turning to look at him.

"Yep, we're screwed, thought I'd ring."

"I'll deal with him." He gives Steve the glare of death.

"O.k. But if he goes near a phone tell me, they'd rather hear it from me… listen, I can keep you out of this, say it was someone else…"

"Nah, it's alright, I'll do my best."

"O.k. Any news on how long you'll be?" Loki asks hopefully.

"Not yet."

"O.k. Call me, yeah?"

"Sure. Love you." Clint hangs up and turns to Steve. "What do you think you're doing Steve?"

Steve blinks? "What? I'm not humming!"

"Calling my boyfriends parents? What kind of stalker-freak-retard are you?"

"I don't know what you mean." _Wow that escalated quickly._

"Steve, I'm tired and frustrated and I don't have time for your bullshit. I swear if you do it I'm telling Fury you touched me and your job is over."

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to lie?" He smirked. "Don't forget I can counter that by saying you hit me."

Clint sighs. "Don't do it, alright? I mean… please?"

"I'm not doing anything!" He holds up his hands. "Honest." _This is going better that expected._

"Steve, I know you're gonna do it, come on! Man up!"

"Do what? I have no idea what you're talking about! Why would I have his parent's number?!"

"Steve I'm serious! Stop lying, I know you're gonna tell his parents!"

"Nope, I'm sure I don't, be nice to me maybe it'll stay that way." Steve smirks.

"What do you mean?" Clint asks, realisation dawning on him.

"I think I've made myself clear." He gets up. "I need to stretch my legs." He walks to the

bathroom, huge grin on his face. Clint rubs his forehead.

"What the hell was that? Urgh." He sighs.

Steve was pacing at the back of the plane, he hadn't meant to piss Clint off _that_ much. He sighed and returned to his seat, putting in headphones and not saying a word, Clint sighed and bit his lip, too worried to relax.

"Please?"

Steve sighed, puling out his headphones, resolve crumbling. "I honestly don't know what you're talking about."

"Please Steve."

"If I don't know I can't do it can I?" He says with a sly smile, Clint breathes a sigh of relief.

"Thank you."

Steve shrugged and went back to his music, Clint glances at the aeroplane food and decides that, yes, he can wait, Steve doesn't seem to mind and wolfs his down hungrily, making Clint feel more than just a little sick.

When they finally reached the hotel both men are tired and weary, neither care that the place was only three stars, or that the food was on the health and safety's hit list, and Steve certainly didn't care that the woman at the counter asked if they wanted a double bed instead. Steve shook his head and collected the keys to both rooms and followed Clint up, dumping his bags in his own room. He knocks on the door almost meekly. Clint sighs and lets him in. seemingly Clint's room is far better than Steve's, more space, more quality, more AC, less bugs.

"What do you want?"

"Can I crash in here, my AC's broken and it's boiling in there, also the shower doesn't work." Steve sighs and shrugs apologetically.

"Fine. You're on the couch though." He flops on his bed, Steve nods and sits on the couch in the middle of a room in front of the black and white television, He pulls out his file and starts to read through their brief , Clint sighed and rolled over, falling back asleep without warning.

"Mmm, anyway, what do you want to do until dinner?" Clint stayed silent and Steve went over, thinking Clint was ignoring his question. He stood, arms folded by the bed. "Clint?" He bent down and poked him, Clint half woke, pulling Steve into his arms, thinking in his half- sleep it was Loki.

"Sshh babe, let me sleep." He cuddled him close, Steve blinking confusedly back at him.

"Clint?" Steve suddenly realised what was happening, and couldn't quite bring himself to fully wake Clint or pull away.

Clint turned suddenly sentimental. "I love you so much babe." He clung tightly.

"I love you too." Steve said earnestly, knowing the words were not for him but going along with it anyway, only realising when Clint put a hand to the back of his head that he'd been kissed Clint, not that he planned on stopping, he pulled closer, whining softly as he felt Clint's mouth against his own, Clint sighed and opened his eyes, blinking when he saw Steve, and very much minding the hand that had travelled down his chest and was making it's way down to-

"What the hell?!" He pushed Steve away, forcing him off the bed as a bonus. Steve groans and rubs his head.

"Ow." He sat up and looked over at him. "That hurt."

"What the hell were you doing?!" Clint snaps, wiping his mouth and glaring down at him.

"Well actually I was coming over to see if you were awake and you pulled me into the bed." Steve retorted.

"You kissed me!" He said accusingly and gets up before Steve can reply. "Don't bother, I'll be back later." He snaps and slams the door, leaving Steve on the floor. Steve sighs and gets up, going back to nap on the couch, not as ashamed of himself as he should have been.

A few hours later Clint comes back, obviously drunk and falls onto the couch, incidentally on top of Steve too, who wakes with a grunt.

"Clint, you're squashing me!" Steve grunts and readjusts his position, confused as hell..

"I love you babe." He looks to Steve for confirmation, Steve nods.

"I love you too." He actually couldn't care less Clint thought he was Loki

"Kiss me then." Clint says, leaning in, Steve doesn't question the request and complies, leaning up gently, this is not enough for Clint, who smashes their lips together, kissing hard and fast, Steve gives in and lets him do it, pulling Clint down onto him, _well why not? He won't remember_…. Clint doesn't seem to mind either and pulls him eagerly towards his bed, so drunk he still thinks it's Loki, he holds him close and in-between bouts of passion he tells 'Loki' over and over again how much he loves him and why, Steve more than happy to hear the praise and respond accordingly.

In the morning Clint wakes, sees Steve lying next to him and falls off the bed. "NOT AGAIN!" This wakes Steve, who groans. "What?" It takes him a few seconds to remember what happened. "How- Oh. OH."

"Shit!" Clint jumps up and glares at him, cursing again. "Shit!" Steve sighs and rolls over, uninterested. Clint runs his hands through his hair and paces for a bit. "Not again, shit. I'm gonna have a shower. _Don't_ come in."

"Wasn't gonna." Steve held up his hands and sighed. Clint groans and walks into the bathroom, shutting but not locking the door, and getting in the shower.

Fifteen minutes later Steve is getting impatient and knocks on the door. "Dude, how long are you going to be?"

"As long as I damn like!"

"Well I wanna shower before breakfast so hurry up!"

"I'm not getting out soon!"

"But I nee- ... can I come in there then?"

"WHAT?!"

"It's not like I haven't seen it before, besides I won't _do_ anything, I need a shower!"

"No!"

"Then get out!"

"…no."

Steve sighs. "Please?"

"If you touch me…"

"I won't I won't, so can I?" He pleads.

"Fine. No touching."

"Sure." He walks in and strips off, not ashamed enough to stop himself from throwing 'not bad' looks at Clint as he steps in the shower, Clint almost smirks and gives him a 'not bad' look back, before remembering he had Loki and scowling, washing quickly and waiting for Steve to do the same. Steve doesn't mess around and gets in and out of the shower quickly, towel drying himself and leaving for breakfast in ten minutes. Clint sighs, stays in another five before getting out, dried and dressed, collapsing again on the bed.

It was half an hour before Steve returned, tossing him an apple and putting some orange juice on the side. "I'm gonna go for a swim."

"'Kay, I'm gonna sleep." He tried not to convey how pissed off he was with Steve.

"Whatever." Steve grabbed his stuff and headed to the muddy water that was labelled a swimming pool, swimming laps and trying not to think about Clint. It didn't work. Clint couldn't sleep, to pissed off, guilty and, confused about Steve, he sighed and got some water; pointedly ignoring the glass of orange juice on the side and reading through the brief _again_, somehow managing to bore himself enough to get into a deep sleep, so he didn't notice when Steve got back, saw Clint and carried him to his bed, kissing his forehead and pulling the covers around him before heading back to the couch and getting himself into a sleep almost as deep as the man in the bed across from him.


	7. Mission impossible with added gay

Despite Steve's previous kindness he is awoken to a showered and dressed Clint; shaking him awake. "Dude, breakfast, I want your wallet, I'm kinda broke." Clint runs his hands through his hair. "Trousers." Steve grumbles and rolls back over. Clint goes to Steve's trousers and walks to the door. "Do you want anything?" "Apple juice." Steve grumbles, face down on the couch. "Alright." He walks out of the room and goes down to breakfast. Steve pulls himself to Clint's bed and breathes in his smell from the pillows, contentedly napping for a while. Clint returns in half an hour and puts the apple juice on the table, sighing at seeing Steve on his bed. "Steve, I want my bed, go sleep on the couch." Steve groans. "Do I have to?" "Yes." Steve sighs and rolls of the bed, pulling himself to the couch while Clint throws himself on his bed, staring at the ceiling blankly. Steve pulls himself until he's sitting, rubbing his forehead. Clint glances at him. "You're gonna keep your moth shut, o.k?" Steve mimes zipping his lips and walks to his apple juice. "You know we're gonna loos our jobs if you say anything…" "I'm not gonna, I swear." He sips his juice. "Good." He sighs and rolls over, hugging his pillows, Steve rolls his eyes at him and starts pulling on his pants and shirt, Clint closes his eyes and tries to sleep, Steve is about to talk when he notices Clint's vacant expression, he decided not to disturb him and pulls out his mission files. "So, how many hours until the mission?" Clint says with his eyes closed. Steve looks at his watch. "Eighteen. We leave at six pm tomorrow." Clint huffs. "We? Like you and me? The same time?" "Yeah, we are on the same mission…" "I can tell." Clint groans. "There's a- uh, tent… three days." "Wait, what!?" he sits up and raises an eyebrow. "Umm… we're in a tent for three days for recon." "You mean… we're gonna sleep together… in the same tent?" Steve shuffled awkwardly. "Umm… yeah." Steve shrugged and Clint huffs. "I seriously want to punch you." Steve sighs. "Not like I chose to come." "Whatever." Clint lies back onto the bed. "I'm sorry?" Steve sips his juice. "Like that's gonna help." Clint sighs. "Can you stop acting like any of this is my fault!?" Steve said exasperatedly. "Fine! But if you touch me while I'm asleep I'll kick you in the nuts! We've had enough." "O.k. O.k. You started it!" He holds up his hands. "I started it? Steve! I was drunk, you were sober! You could have stopped me!" "Thought never occurred." He smirks. "What do you mean?" Clint raises and eyebrow. "I didn't think of that." Steve smirks again. "Why not?" Steve shrugs. "'Cos life is short and you are hot." He grins. "Oh please! You know I'm with someone else, I don't know why you didn't stop me!" Steve shrugs again. "He's not gonna know." "I know he's not gonna know, but I still love him!" Clint sighs. "You should know not to get drunk around me!" He tries not to show he's wounded by Clint's words. "Well you should stop me the next time I get drunk!" "Fine!" He snaps. "I will!" "Good." He huffs. Steve sighs. "Now we've got that burst of testosterone out of our system…" "Go swimming or something Steve, I need some space." "Fine, I'll go swim." He collects his stuff and heads towards the pool. Clint sighs and closes his eyes. "Idiot." He murmurs to himself. The smell reminds Loki of Clint. Tears well in Loki's eyes. How much Loki missed him, like a constant ache in his chest. He throws the shirt across the room, glaring at it as though it's the reason he's gone. I can't take it anymore. Loki needs to see Clint again. He walks calmly to the shirt and picks it up, falling onto the bed with the shirt over his face. Loki breathes deeply. Deodorant dirt, food and, something that is just him. Loki can feel the tears wetting the shirt as he clings to the bed sheets in a desperate hope that if he were to wish hard enough he would find Clint next to him. It doesn't happen. Who would have known that something a simple as a shirt could mean so much. To Loki it meant home, comfort, Clint. Loki knew he loved Clint more than anything, and being away from him was killing Loki. He found himself weeping uncontrollably and placing the shirt carefully to the side of the bed. Every time Loki did this it smelt less like Clint and Loki can't have that. Loki needs him to come back. When he's gone Loki doesn't eat or, sleep unless he wants to wake screaming from nightmares, he barely talks, he feels as though he can't breathe without Clint. Loki is curled up small on the bed, he feels like he's dead without Clint. The thought occurs to Loki he hasn't eaten in days. Oh well, I'm not hungry anyway. That should worry him but it doesn't. Everything Loki does reminds him of Clint, or Clint's absence. And as if knowing he's gone isn't enough, Loki has to live with the knowledge that he might come back hurt, or d- no. Don't even think it. The thing he didn't think still manages to bring him tears. Thor has tried to make it better, tried to make Loki forget him, but he can't. Thor can't stop him screaming into consciousness on the nights he does manage to sleep. Thor couldn't stop it, Loki couldn't stop it, the only one who could was Clint and he was- Loki didn't even know where Clint was. If Clint got hurt it could take weeks for the news to reach him and by then- Loki chokes the thought before it can bring more tears. He picks up the shirt and hugs it to his chest like a comfort blanket. Oh Clint. He thought. Please come back to me. The next eighteen hours past in a flash and soon the boys found themselves in the middle of the dark, dense forest, barely lit and silent, following G.P.S. Coordinates and coming to a stop when Steve halted abruptly. "Umm… this is it." He points to the tiny piece of plastic that is the excuse for their basher. "Oh." "Oh god.." he sighs. "You're gonna… sleep next to me? It's so… small." Steve winces. "Yeah, umm, we have separate sleeping bags if it helps." Clint ignores him and groans, getting under the canvas. Steve shoves his stuff under to keep it dry and stands up. "My shift is in half an hour, I'll wait out here." "I'll take a nap." He takes of his shirt and lies in his sleeping bag, dozing off while Steve changes shoes and combats, he smiled at the sleeping Clint. Like a little baby. He sighs and checks his kit, a little nervous about the mission, he knew it was important and didn't want to mess it up, Things were much easier when there was no such thing as lasers or C-4. He checks his watch again, time had flown by and it was already time to move, he leans and kisses Clint softly before retreating quickly, Clint feels Steve's kiss but doesn't want to make things more complicated so stays still, he waits for Steve to leave and gets out from under the basher and sits on a nearby log rubbing his eyes and sighing. Steve crawls through the underbrush to his recon point and pulls out some binoculars and a notebook, he watches intently, finally pulling out a radio frequency reader to interpret signals, there shouldn't be any, so long as the research was correct, so he frowns when the machine picks up something almost immediately, he frowns and listens, writing down the words and trying to break the code. He scribbles furiously on his notepad and his brow furrows. No… that can't be right… CLINT! He collects his stuff together quickly and scrambles quickly to the basher, shaking Clint. "Clint! Wake up!" he hissed loudly. Clint groans. "I'm already awake!" "Sssh! We need to get out of here!" He whispers. "What's wrong? He raises his eyebrow. "Fury didn't do his research properly, they do a sweep of the forest every evening, if we're found…" "Where are we supposed to go now?" He sits up. "Hotel, or closest building, but we need to be quick." He starts to pack his things up. "Fine!" He huffs, putting his stuff in a bag." "You wanna get caught?" Steve hissed, getting rid of their ground signs. "Come on, we've got a few minutes at best." "Alright, alright! Calm down!" He grabs his bow and arrows. "Come on then!" Steve leads the way out, of the forest stopping a few meters short of the exit and pulling him to the floor. "get down!" Clint falls on his back and winces in pain. "You could've just told me!" "Sorry, I'd rather not see you shot down by a sniper, one more second and they would have seen you!" "Yeah, right." He pulls out his bow and arrows. "Next time don't pull me like that, my back hurts!" Clint whines. "My apologies, little baby get a bruise?" He snaps, reading his shield and handgun. "Try not to let them know we're here, we just need to get out." "Well if you only had a brain, we can just roll over and the won't notice us dumbass, it's dark and we're far away!" "Fine, lets do it." He rolls over quietly. Clint sighs and rolls. Idiot. He accidentally rolls on top of Steve. Shit. "Don't move." He whispers, Steve freezes and grunts into the ground. They hear the march of boats and keep low, soon enough they pass and Clint rolls back, sighing in relief as he had been feeling every inch of Steve's body on his own, Steve feels a little violated. But I suppose I deserve that. Steve gets on all fours and scouts the area, when he nods and confirms there's no one there Clint walks out normally. "Come on, nobody's here!" Steve huffs but doesn't want to be left behind so he follows his example. "So where do we go now?" Clint chuckles a little. Steve glares. "Nearest motel, try and act like a tourist." "Well you'd better hide that gun." Clint says as he shoves his bow and arrow pack away, Steve tucks the weapon into the back of his trousers and shoves his precious shield into his bag. "Can you speak Spanish?" Clint laughs. "Nope. Can you?" "A little." He bites is lip. "Oh well, I'll talk to Fury about this tomorrow!" "Okay good, there's a motel like ten feet away, I really hope we aren't sharing a room…" Steve sighs. "I'm not made of money, it's fine, I'll take the floor." Clint shrugs. "Okay, payback for the other night!" he smirks. Steve rolls his eyes and walks through the door, muttering a few words to the man at the desk and returning to Clint, tossing him the keys. "Last room." Clint catches the key and heads to the room, he opens the door and is left with the reason this is the only room left, it was small, dark, unfurnished and frankly, smelt like a blocked drain, or as Clint put it. "This really sucks… but it's o.k. I have a bed." He smirks. "Whatever." He doesn't bother rolling out his sleeping bag, he goes to the window, pulling out his phone. "Huh, got signal." Clint throws himself on a bed that was probably less comfy than the floor, and smelt worse. "Are you gonna call Fury?" Steve shakes his head and rings a number, bringing the phone to his ear. "He Nat! No, not really. Long story. Tell Fury I'm gonna give him a bolloking tomorrow. Nah, we're fine. Alright, laters!" He hands up the phone and throw it onto the only other piece of furniture; a small chair. He sighs and sits on the floor. "Is the signal gone?" Clint looks over at him. "No, why? Wanna make a call?" "Uh... No, just asking." Clint says casually. Steve smiles softly. "Call him." "Not today." Clint says firmly. Steve shrugs. "I'm sure it'd make you feel better…" "I've had enough drama for one day." Clint sighed. Steve raises and eyebrow but doesn't voice his comment. "If you change your mind it's there." "Yeah, thanks." Clint closes his eyes. Steve yawns and stretches, lying down on the floor without so much as a pillow, Clint grins. He's gonna wake up with horrible backache. Despite the bed, Clint can't get to sleep, and the little noises Steve is making don't help, he folds a lumpy pillow over his head and tries in vain to get some rest, Steve sleeping peacefully on the floor. The next morning Steve woke, groaning and rubbing his neck. Ow. "Morning." Clint says, lying in bed and looking at the ceiling. "How did you sleep?" Steve grunts and gets up. "Didn't sleep. What about you?" "I slept fine." He rubbed his neck, obviously lying. "You should have slept." "Well, I kept hearing weird noises from you while you were asleep, how's your back?" Clint grins to himself. "It's been better." He groans and stretches, receiving an audible click in return. "Ow. I do not make noises while I sleep." "Yes you do, I was awake the whole time!" Steve mutters to himself and slumps in the chair. "Anyway, when are we leaving today?" "Whenever we damn want, let Fury worry about us for a bit." Steve says crossly. "Whoa… someone is pissed off this morning!" Clint smirks. "Yes. That balls- up could have killed us! I bet it was Phil!" "Come on, it's no big deal!" Clint rolled his eyes. "No? Had we been found the whole mission would have been compromised, and we would be dead!" "We're fine now, God, you love making a big fuss over everything!" He sighs. "Huh." Steve folds his arms and closes his eyes. "Do you think they have breakfast?" "I doubt it, but incidentally there's a grocery store not far from here…" "Good." As an afterthought he tosses Clint the phone. "If Fury calls tell him we need to have words." He growls slightly. Clint sits up and waves. "Goodbye Steve." "Back in a bit." He rolls his eyes and walks out. Clint immediately pounces on the phone and calls Loki, exited and guilty at the same time. Loki picks up, voice quieter than usual. "Hello?" Clint grins. "Hey!" "Clint! Hey! How are you?! Are you o.k?" "I'm fine Loki. How are you? How's everything back there?" "Fine, great, one sec." He whispers the sound of a door shutting is heard. "Sorry, don't want to wake Thor. I miss you so much!" "I miss you too! How's your neck?" Clint laughs. "All healed up." Loki huffs. "Parents are back, so I suppose that's a good thing." "Yeah, good. How's Thor?" "He's alright. I haven't seen much of him but I'm sure he's fine." "Good! Steve is pissed off because we almost died. But of course, I saved us." Loki suddenly sounds worried. "What?! How?!" "Long story, I'll tell you when I get back." "You'd better. Listen, I don't care how cool the story would be, don't do anything stupid!" "Alright, alright, sorry!" "Yeah, you'd better be! No getting injured, remember?" "Yeah, no injury's, promise." "Huh, keep it that way." He sighed. "So other than that, everything fine?" Clint sighs, remembering the other night. "Everything if fine here, really." "Good, keep it that way." He chuckles. "Alright." Clint is grinning. "Steve isn't being too much of a pain is he?" "Nope, he's fine, I owe him a punch though." "Give him one from me." Loki chuckles again. "I will, don't worry." "Always do." "Loki, it's fine, I promise." "I know, I know." Loki sighs. Steve comes in quietly and Clint doesn't notice. "So, how are my shirts, you still have them?" "Uh huh, I have one under my pillow." "Good!" Clint beams. "Yeah, mom found one, I had to stop her putting it in the wash!" Clint laughs and notices Steve. "Good call, listen I'll call you in a few days, alright?" "You'd better." His voice gets a little higher. "I love you." "I love you too babe." He smiles. "Come back in one piece, yeah?" Loki's voice breaks slightly. "Alright, alright, talk to you later, bye!" he hangs up. Steve has a triumphant grin. "Told you so." Clint sighs. "What did you get?" Steve tosses him an apple. "I got some bread, water, fruit and, a few other bits and bobs." Clint bites into the apple. "Thanks." "No problem." The rest of the morning passes without incident and Clint sits thinking about Loki while Steve tries to get signal to call Fury to give him the bolloking he deserves.

When they had both finished laying around and wasting the day on pointless tasks Clint spoke. "If you didn't sleep well, you can take the bed." He runs a hand through his hair.

"Thanks." Steve gladly flops onto the bed. "I'll ring Fury in an hour or so."

"If he picks up." Clint sighs. "I'm gonna have to take a walk or something useful."

"O.k I need to sleep." Steve hugs the pillows.

"Okay." He walks out of the room, down the steps and out of the hotel, bored., Steve tries to sleep but can't help but think about Clint.


	8. Fury is sassy and Clint kisses Steve

SourceURL:file:/localhost/Users/natalie/Documents/Death%20leaves%20a%20heartache%20no%20one%20can%20heal,%20love%20leaves%20a%20memory%20no%20one%20can%

After an hour and a half Clint gets back to the room and goes to the bathroom, not being quiet about it.

Steve moans and sits up. "Thanks for waking me!"

"You're welcome buddy, oh and by the way, we have to leave, but after I'm done showering." Clint shrugs.

"Leave? Where?" Steve asks, confused.

"Somewhere that's not this motel."

"We need to stick together." Steve says, unsure of Clint's motives.

"I know that's why I'm telling you, we need to leave. Someone is going to find us, which means we have to get back to the forest again, don't ask how I know." Clint said quickly and shuts the bathroom door, starting the shower.

"O-o.k?" Steve starts throwing Clint's stuff in a bag. "I'll pack for you."

"Thanks." Clint shouts from the bathroom.

Steve finishes packing and realises something urgent, he walks to the bathroom door. "Clint… I need to pee…"

"Not now! Not again!" Clint groans, regretting not locking the door.

"No, Clint, I _really _ need to pee." Steve does a little dance outside the bathroom.

"Gosh, you're so annoying! Fine! Be quick!" Clint sighs.

"Sorry." Steve runs in, trying not to look.

Clint does his best to ignore him and continues taking a shower. Steve keeps his eyes on the floor and goes red, trying to get it all over with.

"Aren't you taking a little long?" Clint rolls his eyes.

"How would you know how long is 'too long' to pee?" Steve looks over at him.

"I just know stuff, just like I knew they're looking for us, and that we have to leave the motel today." Clint says with a smirk.

Steve raises eyebrow and finishes up, zipping his fly, and turning to Clint. "How do you know we need to leave?"

"Because if we don't leave they're gonna come here and kill us, and by the way, I mean the bad guys. Now stop staring at me and get your stuff ." Clint steps out of the shower, completely naked and grabs a towel.

Steve looks away politely. "You could have waited." Steve walks to the door, Clint wraps a towel around his waist and follows, ignoring Steve.

Steve flops onto the bed. "Hurry up and get dressed, we're already packed."

"Fine." Clint pulls on his boxers and jeans before sighing. "Of course I have to look for my shirt." Steve looks away, coughing slightly, Clint finally grabs a shirt from his bag and pulls it over his head. "Come on, I'm done."

"Alright, alright." Steve grabs his own bags. "Let's go." Clint grabs his bags and slides on his shoes, walking towards the door. Steve follows him, grumbling quietly.

They get out of the motel, creeping back into the forest. "This sucks. Did you call Fury?" Clint sighs, tired and grouchy, bow up and arrow loaded.

"Not yet, I'll do it now." He pulls out his phone. "What're we doing here?"

"I'm basically saving our lives." Clint says calmly, pointing at the motel building, which is swarming with enemy foot solders and agents.

"How the hell did you know that'd happen?" Steve says as he dials the number.

"Heights, I can see everything." Clint replies coolly.

Steve looks around while the phone rings. "Where did you go?"

"Stop interrogating me." He says sharply.

"I'm not I'm curio- hello? Fury?"

"Mr Rodgers!" Fury speaks down the line. "Where the hell are you?" He asks angrily.

"We just spent the night in a motel because you failed to do your research!" Steve snaps back.

Clint chuckles and takes the phone from Steve**. "**We're fine, we almost got killed twice , but it's no big deal, how many days left?"

"Barton?" Fury's voice cools a little. "Two weeks, what is Rodgers talking about?"

"We're kinda lo-" Clint grabs Steve, hiding behind a tree. "As I was saying we're kinda lost, so you'd better do something about it." He shoots Steve a look, which clearly says 'stay silent.'

"I'm tracking your cell now, I'm pulling you out for a debrief, what went wrong?" Fury speaks quickly, Steve starts to struggle slightly, confusion on his features.

"Well other than the fact that they're following us as I speak, which shouldn't be happening, nothing's wrong." Clint says slightly sarcastically.

"Get safe now, we'll be there in about twenty minutes."

"We're in the middle of a damn forest, hurry up and track the phone!" Clint snaps, hanging up and passing the phone to Steve. "Follow me or you'll die." Clint says calmly, sprinting away.

"Shit!" Steve sprints as fast as he can to keep up, swearing when Clint finally stops. "What." He inhales deeply. "The fuck. Are you. doing?" He continues taking deep breaths.

"Saving your life for the third time." Clint snaps, getting his breath back.

"Wha-?" Steve looks at him in bewilderment. Clint lies down on the ground in the underbrush. "Come here."

Steve raises an eyebrow. And looks at him. "What?"

"Lie down. Quickly. Now." Clint sighs exasperatedly as Steve does as he's told, smirking.

"Time and a place."

"It's not what you think." He sighs. "Oh and I forgot to mention, move and you might as well die."

Steve freezes and looks at him. "What?"

"Yep. Sshh."

Steve silences, looking at Clint curiously, Clint swallows and looks at the sky.

After a minute or so Clint sighs and sits up, sensing the enemy that's invisible to Steve to have passed. "That was close."

"What the hell was that about!?" Steve sits up.

"Never mind, you can climb a tree, right? " Clint says quickly as he starts to climb a nearby tree. Steve doesn't move.

"I'm not doing anything until you bloody explain what the hell is going on."

"We almost died because they sent a plane. Not one of S.H.I.E.L.D, the enemy." Now that Steve thought about it, he had heard an engine of some sort. "Now climb up before they search here and find us." Steve finally climbs up, grumbling again.

Clint groans "This is so stupid, I've never been on a mission in the middle of a forest." He sits on a strong branch, Steve sits next to him.

"And I've never been on a mission where my partner knows exactly what the enemy are doing." He looks at Clint pointedly.

"That's because you're on a mission with one hell of a professional assassin and S.H.I.E.L.D's finest agent." Clint shrugs modestly. Steve rolls his eyes, throwing his arms up and nearly falling out of the tree as a result.

"Woah!" Steve yelps and Clint quickly places a hand on his thigh and a hand on his shoulder, squeezing softly.

"Relax, Goddamnit!"

Steve relaxes almost immediately with Clint's hands holding him steady. "Yeah, thanks."

"Good." Clint takes hands back and Steve's nerves return a little, foot twitching. "Steve. Seriously, don't loose your balance. What's going on?"

"Nothing! Little freaked, that's all, when will they be here?" Steve changes topics quickly.

"Probably ten or fifteen minutes now. Oh shit." He grabs bow and shoots a person in the forest. "Think he's a bad guy."

"Careful!" Steve places hand on Clint's shoulder. "What if that's a civilian? And now they know we're here!"

"I have more arrows and S.H.I.E.L.D will be here soon." Clint says, not worried.

They'd better be." Steve's mutters, still nervously moving his foot.

"You know when your foot keeps twitching I have to ask what's wrong, and don't say 'nothing's wrong' because I know, o.k. Don't lie to me."

"I'm nervous o.k?" Steve sighs.

"Why? It's not like it's your first mission." Clint shrugs.

"That's not what I mean." Steve bites his lip.

"Then what is it?" Clint seeks Steve's eye contact.

"It's just –" He sighs "Nothing." Steve looks away.

"What is it Steve?" Clint rolls his eyes.

"Nothing." Steve squares his jaw.

"No, I know it's something, tell me."

"It's just- I- I'm worried about you o.k?" Steve shrugs.

"Me? Why would you worry about me?" Clint raises an eyebrow.

"Because."

"Because what?"

"Because you're drifting, changing, going off on your own, knowing everything that's going on, _randomly killing people_." Steve sighs exasperatedly.

"Oh please." He chuckles. "That's exactly what I do on every mission."

Steve glares. "You know what I mean."

"No I don't." Clint glares back.

"Fine!" Steve shuffles away.

"What do you mean?" Clint easily moves closer again.

"Nothing!" He looks away.

"No, tell me!" Clint snaps.

"No- thing!" Steve snaps back. "Look it doesn't matter."

"Yes it does. Tell me Steve!"

"It's you, alright? You've changed completely, I don't know you anymore and it freaks me out! O.k?" Steve blurts, huffing slightly.

"Of course I changed Steve." He sighs. "Come on, after everything that's happened you expect me to be the same person?"

"I expect to be able to recognise you!" He snaps, and clings to the tree trunk.

"You basically ruined my life! " He snaps back at him. "And ironically I've saved yours three times in a row!"

Steve glares and bites his lip. "I told you it doesn't matter."

"No, it matters."

"Oh does it? To you? The great Clint Barton?"

"Yes it does" Clint snaps angrily.

"Sure, why don't I believe you?" He turns away.

"Because you're a fucking idiot? I don't owe you anything Steve and you owe me a lot but I'm nice enough to let it go!" he shouts, scouting and climbing down the tree for a few moments but jumping down most of the way easily.

Steve sits still and sighs "I'll stay here."

"Whatever I'm not gonna save your life again!" Clint shrugs and starts walking away.

"I've got the phone, remember? How are you gonna get back?"

"Screw you and the phone, I've got my own ways." Clint says confidently.

"Clint! You idiot! Do you want to die?" Steve scrambles down the tree and runs after him.

"I'm not gonna die, I'll find a way like I usually do while you sit on your ass and wait for thing to happen for you."

"Shut up!" Steve shouts finally. "Fury said stick together!"

"No." Clint stops walking and turns to Steve, pinning him against the nearest tree. "Leave me alone."

"You expect me to just leave you?" Steve struggles against Clint's grip.

"Yes." He lets go but is still standing close. Steve frowns softly.

"No. I won't."

"Yeah you will." Clint snaps, their faces inches away from each other.

"Make me." Steve says, voice low.

Clint snarls "This is the least you can do for me."

Just then the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter arrives, cutting Steve's response. Fury is waiting for them, Steve grabs Clint and pulls him to the helicopter.

"I won't leave you!" He shouts over the roar of the engine, Clint pushes Steve away as Fury gets out of the helicopter.

"Just cos Fury is here I'm letting it go!" Steve glares at Clint, Fury looks at the both of them.

"Wanna get in or wait to get killed?" He says smartly. Clint grunts and gets in the helicopter, ignoring both of them, Steve sits next to Clint, looking away, Fury sits opposite, looking between them.

"Care to explain what's wrong?"

"Not really, Clint?" Steve speaks sharply at the man next to him.

"Not gonna happen." Clint shrugs, looking away.

"Fine!" Steve huffs and looks away too.

20 minutes later the helicopter lands. Fury speaks again. "Debrief in half an hour. Change, I want you both tidy, keys." He tosses Clint the keys. Clint sighs and catches them.

"Why does it always have to be me? Why am I always the one who has to take care of things? Why am I the one that takes the blame and saves lives, why isn't it Steve?" He snaps angrily.

Fury glares. "Out. I'll talk to you later." Clint is still glaring and curses under his breath, getting out of the helicopter. Steve follows 'accidentally' bumping into Clint on the way out.

Clint stops walking and glares at him. "What's you're problem Steve?"

"Nothing." He snaps and snatches his key, storming off.

Clint runs after him, grabbing his arm and turning him around. "Steve!" he growls. "What was that? And why didn't you let me go?"

"I didn't want you hurt!" Steve glares.

"Why? Do you even care? " Clint sneers.

"Of course I care you idiot!"

"Oh so now you care about me!"

"When did I stop?" Steve's brow furrows and he sighs. "Never mind."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, leave it." Steve tries to pull away, only to have Clint pull him closer.

"No." He growls. "Tell. Me." Clint whispers.

"Why do you assume I stopped caring?" Steve shrugs slightly.

"Because you never did! Why would you? Why do you even care about me?"

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't I care?" Steve looks at Clint, confused.

"Because you kinda ruined my life. Remember?"

"I was drunk too. _Remember?_" He sneers.

"You could have kept your mouth shut!" Clint snaps.

"I only told Natasha… And Maria…" Steve admits.

"Everyone will know if you tell Natasha!" Clint hisses.

Steve sighs. "I'm sorry, o.k. I was a little pissed off." He shrugs.

"Screw you! And please do me a favour and stay away from me." Clint says calmly and walks away.

Steve sighs and walks away, blinking back tears. Clint goes to his room in the motel and throws himself on the bed, Steve goes to his own room and showers and changes.

An hour later Clint was done changing and showering when he was called to Fury's room for the de-brief, inside he finds a desk, a single bed, not slept in, and Fury had somehow managed to acquire two more chairs, he leaned over the desk, waiting for them. Steve joins him, avoiding his eye contact. Clint sits opposite Fury without saying a word, Steve does the same. Fury glances at the two of them.

"Care to explain what's going on here, Captain?" Fury asks calmly.

"Explain what sir?"

"What happened during the mission, I know it was our mistake, but were there any difficulties that happened between you and agent Barton?"

"No." Steve growls softly. "Nothing happened, you didn't tell us there was gonna be a damn patrol every evening that's all!" He says angrily.

"O.k. the mission has been put on hold, but if nothing happened and everything is o.k then I can put you back in a team again?" Fury asks hesitantly.

"Steve glances at Clint. "Whatever he says."

Clint shakes his head "I'm sorry boss, but no, it's not a good idea, I'm better off without him."

Steve shrugs "What he said I guess."

"Well when the helicopter arrived you two seemed like you were fighting, what the hell happened?" Fury raises an eyebrow.

"Genius over here wanted to stay behind and find his own way back." Steve sneers.

Fury sighs. "I'm too tired of dealing with your stubbornness agent Barton, we'll talk when we're alone."

"Whatever, I'm tired." Steve gets up. "I'll go."

"Don't come back." Clint mutters and sits straight. Steve looks a little hurt but tries to cover it up as he walks out. Fury's eye follows Steve before turning back to Clint

"What. The. Fuck were you thinking?"

"If he had let me go I probably would be enjoying my time there without having him around." He shrugs.

"I said stick together, what the fuck were you gonna do?"

"I dunno, find another way and survive."

"Why are you so determined to die exactly?" Fury says calmly.

"You know what?" Clint snaps. "I'm too tired of dealing with him. Dealing with you. Dealing with everyone around here! You're all blaming me for everything! I saved his stupid ass three times and this is how you repay me!? If it weren't for me he'd be dead by now!" Clint snaps, trying to make sure Steve can hear him in the hall. Steve does.

"You were given orders, why would you disobey?!"

"What orders?! We got freaking lost in the woods!"

"Steve tells me you knew about the enemies movements to the second, care to explain?"

"We were in a forest! _Trees!_ I'm Hawkeye! I climb to high places and know everything, remember?!"

"We said we were coming, I _ordered_ you to stick together." Fury's voice gets a little louder.

"Well I'm not good at sticking together!"

"Exactly, you need to man up and start being a member of the team!"

"No! That's not gonna happen! Not with _him_!" Clint snaps and stands up.

"Sit down! Start explaining what the fuck is going on!"

Clint sits down. "Is going on with what?" He says carefully.

"You and Rodgers, you've never been worse!"

"Nothing is going on!" Clint snaps.

"Oh really? Why don't I believe you?!"

"Don't ask me, it's your problem." Clint shrugs.

"It is if your little arguments are slowing S.H.I.E.L.D's progress!"

"Fine!" Clint snaps. "You wanna know what happened? He spent the whole time in my room because his shitty A.C wasn't working! We almost slept together and he joined me in bed once or twice! Plus, he saw me naked a couple of times and we showered together! Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Fury process' the facts. "… Was that so hard?"

Clint snaps. "Yes!"

"Out. Now! I'll brief you in a week! Precautionary action has to be taken!"

"No! What's that supposed to mean?"

" I need. To think. O.k? Out!" Fury rubs his forehead.

Clint sighs. "Fine." He stands and walks out, slamming the door angrily.

Fury sighs and starts to shift through his paperwork. "That son-of-a-bitch!"

It's a few hours later, Clint, Steve, and Fury have taken the long plane journey back to the tower, the helicopter was out of action after the mission rescue. Steve heads up the stairs to his room while Clint gets in the elevator and makes his way to his room. He stands in front of his bathroom mirror and suddenly punches it with frustration. He smashes it and his knuckles start bleeding. Steve hears the noise and knocks on the door.

"Clint?! You o.k?"

Clint ignores him.

"Clint?! Hello?"

Clint groans and opens the door. "I'm fine." He said, blood dripping from his hand.

Steve's eyes widen. "You're hurt!" He reaches for Clint's injured hand. "Let me help!"

Clint backs away. "I said I'm fine!" He snaps

"Clint that is not o.k! Let me see!"

"No!" He tries to slam the door in Steve's face.

"Clint, you can't fix it yourself." He holds the door open. Clint ignores him and goes back to the bathroom.

"Clint!" Steve walks in after him. "Let me help."

Clint stops walking and turns to Steve. "Steve, leave me alone." He whispers. "Please."

Steve sighs. "If you want, I just want to help, let me? Please?" He looks into Clint's eyes.

Clint huffs. "Fine."

Steve walks to the bathroom cupboard and gets out a bandage and some wipes. "Come over here."

Clint does as he's told, sighing. "You don't have to do this."

"Yes I do, this is gonna sting a bit, sorry." Steve raises his eyebrow at the smashed mirror and sticks Clint's hand under the tap. Clint bites his lip and prepares for the sting of the antiseptic wipe. When Steve starts to clean the wound carefully Clint hisses in pain. "Sorry." Steve mutters.

"Are you done?" Clint says gruffly.

"No." Steve gets a bandage and wraps it around Clint's wound, sticking it down with a band- aid. "There. Try not to punch anymore mirrors."

"Thanks." Clint huffs and throws himself on the bed. Steve tosses Clint a bottle of painkillers.

"Here, two every few hours until you feel better."

Clint stands and takes off his shirt, unbuckling his belt. "Turn off the lights on your way out." He takes off his jeans and throws himself back on the bed, not caring anymore. Steve sighs and walks out meekly, hitting the switch.

"Call me if you need anything." He says as he shuts the door.

"Yeah, right." Clint mutters and starts dozing off.

Steve goes to his room, pacing for a bit before deciding he's not going to sleep, he sighs and heads for the roof instead, sitting and watching the stars, thinking mainly of Clint.

After ten minutes or so Clint has a nightmare, he sits up and pulls on his clothes, heading to his favourite perch; the roof, it was the only place that made him feel comfortable. Heights in general made Clint feel comfortable. Steve doesn't notice his arrival, he sits on the edge of the roof, looking at the sleeping city below. Clint makes his way to Steve and sits next to him, sighing softly. Steve jumps a little and looks at him.

"Uh- hi."

"Hey." Clint says simply, looking down. Steve looks down as well, not saying a word.

"What are you doing up here?" Clint asks softly.

"Just thinking. It's peaceful up here."

"Yeah, heights are peaceful."

"Mmm, reminds me how out of time I am too." Steve sighs a little.

"Yeah… what are you doing still awake?" Clint says, voice soft.

"Couldn't sleep, jet lag or something."

"Oh."

"Yeah, what about you?"

"Nightmare." Clint says simply.

"What about?"

"I don't like talking about it Steve." He sighs.

"It'll help, I promise."

"I'm fine Steve, anyway, I'm sorry about what I said earlier today."

"What?" Steve looks away.

"I said a lot of things, I was pissed off and I'm sorry."

"Mmm." Steve nods, not meeting Clint's eyes.

Clint looks concerned. "What?"

"Nothing, thanks, I'm sorry too, for everything."

"Yeah, that's o.k."

"Glad that's sorted then." Steve nods.

"Yeah."

"Yeah." Steve looks away.

"What's wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing." Steve says quickly.

"Tell me Steve."

"I- I- I can't do this anymore- I'm sorry- I- I just-" Steve breaks off and sighs.

"Steve, just tell me. Please?" He whispers.

"I- I- I think- I think I love you." Steve looks away, blinking back tears.

Clint is taken aback. "Y- you- you love- _me?_" Steve nods, staring straight down.

Clint is confused as to what to do or say as he has Loki. "But- Steve-"

"I know, I know, I wish I hadn't said anything, I'm sorry."

"I just don't know what to say." Clint shrugs half- heartedly.

"It's fine, I'm sorry, forget it."

"But _Why?_ Why do you love me?"

"It's nothing." Steve shuffles away. "I don't know."

"No, tell me." Clint whispers softly.

"Well, you're the only one I- you know. I just- you make me laugh, you drive me round the bloody bend sometimes, you- doesn't matter."

"Steve please, I wanna hear it, carry on."

"You're hot, you're kind, you're funny- I'm sorry."

Clint put his hand on Steve's shoulder and squeezed gently. "Stop apologising and carry on."

Steve looks at Clint's hand then looks down. "You're the only one who made me feel like I belonged here, you're arrogant, cocky, flirty, and a just a tad smug. You do what you want and you don't care about the consequences, you stand up to Fury, you're brave, a brilliant shot, a fantastic agent and you're not scared of anything. That's why."

"Wow." Clint shook his head with a nervous laugh. "You really think that? That- that's pretty cool."

"Just forget it, it doesn't matter." Steve sighed and looked down, biting his lip.

Clint smiles. "I know I might regret this, but I feel like doing it." He cups Steve's face and raises it, pressing his lips to Steve's, Steve whimpers slightly and kisses back softly, Clint rests a hand on Steve's thigh. Steve places a hand over Clint's and pulls closer, moaning slightly. Suddenly Clint pulls away.

"I- err- umm- better… get going."

"Y- yeah, uh- I'll- uh- stay here." He fixes his gaze on the city below. Clint gives him a peck on the lips before standing up and walking away. Steve smiles slightly and looks at his feet.

Clint goes back to his room, still shocked about what he just did, he throws himself into his bed and hopes things will de- muddle themselves by the morning.


	9. In Loki's system

Yeah, this is a short chapter I know, to be fair this fanfic has consumed my life and I'm supposed to be doing G.C.S.E's so… also I don't want to put this bit in the next chapter because, well, I like to warn people before I rip out their hearts, so yeah if you think this has been angsty (which it hasn't really) it's about to get a million times worse. So yeah, a little fluff before heart- wrenching sadness, so enjoy I guess, also there will be the traditional one week gap, cos yeah, I'm evil, to sum up, this is your last chance to turn back and pretend Loki and Clint go off and live happily ever after. And for the record, Steve does just _happen_ to be everywhere Clint goes, o.k? They have some sort of bond or something or maybe Clint just gets lucky, or unlucky depending on your perspective.

The next morning Clint wakes up and changes, he goes to the cafeteria to grab something to eat, finding Steve all ready down stairs. Steve avoids his eye contact, not sure how to approach the situation, whereas Clint walks confidently up to Steve and clears his throat. "Morning."

Steve looks up shyly and smiles. "Good morning."

Clint smiles back and takes a sip from his coffee. "So… uh, listen… about last night…"

"Yeah?" Steve takes a bite from his toast.

"You know I have a boyfriend so… like, can you just forget what happened?" Clint says a little nervously.

"Yeah, sure, no problem." He nods. "Filed under 'never happened.'"

Clint nods and smiles. "Thanks… I umm… I need to talk to Fury… see you round." He walks away.

"Yeah." Steve calls after him. "See you…"

Clint sighs in relief and heads to Fury's office, knocking before entering. "Morning Sir."

"Barton. Morning." Fury raises an eyebrow. "What have you come to be a smartass about today?"

"Well…" He sits in a chair opposite Fury's desk. "Did you think about it?"

Fury sighs and puts the pen down. "At the end of the day you are both consenting adults, unless he forced you- did he?"

"No, he didn't force me on anything." Clint shrugs.

"Then there's not a lot I can do, not legally anyway… I just need you both to start behaving like adults."

"Fine. Fine. So, what about the next mission? Please tell me I'm going alone…"

"The next mission is a fiasco, meant to be a follow up but I told the president it was too dangerous to be here, so they're still figuring things out… Do you know how much paperwork a failed mission is?" He gestures to the huge stacks of paper on his desk. "Coulson's got more in his office, I and I have you two to thank for it."

"Whatever, it's not my fault." Clint shrugs again. "But I don't need Steve to be with me on the next mission, even though we're o.k. Now… I just- yeah…"

Fury looks at him. "You think I'm going to _trust_ you two on a mission alone?"

"At least we were doing a good job, I saved his life, boss, remember? Three times!"

"You've said, you need to stop being so hard on him Barton." Nick said, as

though he could read the undertones of accusal in Clint's voice.

"Fine, I'll try my best, but try not to put him on a mission with me!" Clint stands and turns to the door, Fury mutters a 'dismissed' before adding

"I want to see you in my office at seven p.m, agent Barton." Fury says as Clint turns the door handle, Clint sighs and ignores him heading to the gym to cool off.

Steve is already there, punching the shit out of some punch bags, zoning out to the _thump-thump_ of his fists on cloth. Clint tries to ignore him, and luckily Steve doesn't notice Clint, focussed on beating the punch bag angrily. Clint sighs and approaches him before pating him on the back. "Easy Steve."

Steve jumps and turns around. "Woah! Crap, you scared the shit outta me!"

Clint raises an eyebrow. "Sorry…"

Steve takes a deep breath and takes a sip from his water bottle. "It's fine."

"What's wrong? And don't say nothing, you always punch the hell out of the punch bags when you're pissed off."

"Bad memories." Steve shrugs.

"Really?" Clint raises an eyebrow, knowing that Steve's lying.

"Yes." Steve says defensively and sits on a nearby bench.

"Is it about… what I told you this morning?" Clint sits next to him.

"A little." Steve admits. Clint sighs and buries his face in his hands. "I'm sorry." Steve sighs.

"No, I'm sorry, okay? I understand. It's just that-… I like you too Steve. You're a great guy, but I have a boyfriend."

"I know, I know." Steve moans and rubs his face. "I was letting off steam, that's all."

Clint rests a hand on Steve's thigh. "It's alright, you'll find someone, you deserve someone better than me." He says, realising how much of a dick he had been to Steve.

Steve lets out a weak chuckle and sighs. "Don't even say it."

"No, I'm serious." Clint grins and squeezes gently on Steve's thigh. Steve looks at him, seemingly more relaxed.

"I'm fine. Really."

"If you say so." He sighs. "See you around." He smiles and stands up.

"Yeah, sure Clint." Steve bites his lip as Clint walks out of the gym Steve returns to beating the punch bags.

Clint goes to his room, wanting to call Loki, but he's worried and guilty. He calls Thor instead, _maybe he can tell me what to do about Steve_, he muses, waiting for Thor to pick up. Thor picks up on the fifth ring, sighing tiredly as he does. "Hello?"

"Uh, hey." Clint clears his throat.

"Clint?! Is that you?! Where are you?! When are you coming back?!"

Clint sighs. "I'm back, don't worry!"

"Oh thank gods!" Thor sounds utterly relieved.

Clint chuckles. "How's Loki?"

"Umm… he's uh- he's fine..."

"Really? You're making it sound like he's not."

"… You know what he's like, soon as he's with you for a few days he'll be back to normal."

Clint sighs. "Yeah... is something wrong? You don't sound okay…"

"No, I'm just tired, I've been taking care of him for a bit."

"Okay, I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Umm…" Thor sounds hesitant. "Maybe give me an hour? So I can get his strength up and stuff?"

"I can do that!" Clint raises an eyebrow even though no one is watching.

"That's not what I meant… Clint, I'm not gonna lie, he looks like shit, he hasn't slept in days and I only noticed he'd stopped eating when he collapsed in front of me, he's been in his damn bed for a week!"

Clint gulps and rubs his forehead. "Okay, okay. Just call me when he's better, alright?"

"Come over in an hour, I'll get him washed up and fed if I can, he's only gonna start getting better when you arrive and we both know it."

"Okay Thor, alright, see you in an hour." He sighs and ends the call, throwing himself on his bed. "Great, just great, what have I done to myself?"

Thor has got Loki washed and managed to get a little food down his neck by the time Clint arrives and knocks on the door, Thor opens it with eyes dark from lack of sleep. "Remember what I said, and I didn't tell him you were coming, he'd insist on seeing you and I didn't need the extra fuss."

"Fine, fine." He walks to Loki's bedroom, Loki is in his bed, looking like shit; pasty pale skin, dark black rings around his eyes, he's ridiculously thinner than the last time Clint saw him. Clint makes his entrance known with a small knock.

"Hello!" Loki stares and tries to jump out of bed, almost falling over, he runs (more like staggers) over and pulls Clint into a tight hug, blinking back tears. Clint grins and hugs him back tightly. "How many times do I have to tell you to eat when I'm gone?" He whispers in Loki's ear. Loki manages to weakly whisper back to him.

"This better not be a dream."

"No, it isn't." He whispers again and kisses Loki's cheek. Loki sighs in relief, and clings harder, never wanting to let go.

"I missed you."

"I missed you to baby." He slowly pulls away, Loki leaning on him to stop from falling over.

"Maybe food was a good idea…"

"Go and sit on the bed and I'll bring food, alright?" He kisses Loki's forehead.

Loki nods. "Don't be long."

"Okay." He sits Loki on the bed and walks to the kitchen to get food. Loki sighs in relief and smiles for the first time since the phone call.

Clint returns with food and sits next to him. "You have to eat, understood?"

Loki nods. "I do feel kinda hungry now you're back."

"This is the last time you stop eating when I'm gone, okay?"

"I'll try." Loki says, reaching for the food.

"No, promise me!"

"I can't, I don't get hungry when you're gone, I don't even notice I haven't eaten!"

"I don't care, you have to eat, even if you're not hungry Loki!"

Loki looks a little guilty. "I'm sorry."

Clint kisses his cheek and pulls him closer with one hand. "It's okay, here." He hands Loki a plate of fruit. Loki smiles and sits himself in Clint's lap, eating the whole plate in seconds.

Clint chuckles "Good. Do you want me to get you more food or are you full?"

Loki looks a little meek. "Could I have some more, pretty please?"

"Sure, no problem." Clint smiles and goes to the kitchen again.

Loki stretches happily, and decides to walk down after him, wobbling a little but managing to get to the kitchen. Clint places another plate of fruit on the kitchen counter and notices Loki, he takes him by his arm and helps him sit on the kitchen counter

"I'm fine! I can walk!" Loki chuckles and sits, finishing the new food quickly.

"You don't look okay... Did something happen when I was gone?" Clint sits next to him and hands him another plate of fruit.

"I'm fine, I haven't slept in a bit, I just stopped doing... well anything really, Thor had to come in and make me eat." He chuckles again.

Clint shakes his head. "You're really making me feel guilty. Well, I am guilty..."

"Guilty? Not your fault silly, it's my fault for not getting out of bed." Loki smiles reassuringly.

"It's my fault that I work on missions." He shrugs. "But you'll get used to it, okay?"

"If you say so." Loki shrugs back, finishing the next plate. "There. I'm full, happy?"

Clint grins and nods. "Good boy!" He leans and softly kisses his cheek.

Loki grins and pulls him in for a proper kiss. "C'mere you." Clint smiles and kisses him passionately. Loki kisses him back, sitting himself in Clint's lap, whimpering softly. Clint wraps his arms around Loki's waist, not breaking the kiss. Loki brings his hands to Clint's face and deepens it, but Clint pulls away when he hears footsteps approaching.

Loki returns to his seat, smiling shyly as Odin walks in, Clint chuckles and looks at the ground while Loki coughs and concentrates on his empty plate, Odin raises an eyebrow.

"This is the first time I've seen you out of your room in weeks..." He looks to Clint. "Thor's decided to fall asleep on the couch, no idea why he's so tired but there we go, feel free to wake him."

Clint is still chuckling but he smiles and nods instead. "Okay." He stands up and goes to the couch where Thor is sleeping. Odin collects some toast and pats Loki's head on the way out, going back to his bedroom. Loki walks to the living room and pulls Clint onto the other couch with him. Clint laughs and kisses his forehead "Well, that was awkward..."

"Mmm... thank Gods for your amazing hearing." He snuggles up to Clint, who smirks and holds him tighter. Loki purrs slightly, resting his head on Clint's chest.

They lie like that for a little bit but when Thor groans Clint speaks with a small chuckle. "We should go to the room, don't you think?"

"Absolutely." Loki grins, kissing him on the cheek. Clint grins back and leads him to the room Loki following happily, grabbing onto Clint's hand. Clint tries to forget about all the things that happened with Steve and plans not to say anything, focusing on the present and more importantly, Loki, who pulls him to the bed, curling up on top of him. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, and see I came back in one piece!"

"Hmmm." He scans Clint over. "I might have to do some serious checking, but so far so good." He smiles. "Keep it that way." Clint nods with a smile as Loki kisses him softly. "I'm very glad you're o.k."

"I'm very glad you're okay too! Clint kisses Loki back.

"Course I'm o.k." He says into the kiss.

Clint's eyes wander to his watch. _6:50PM_. _I have a meeting in ten minute_s_!_ Clint pulls away and sits up. "Oh God, I have a meeting, I'm gonna be late!"

Loki whines softly and pouts. "You just got here!"

"I know... I'll be back tomorrow, okay?" Clint smiles apologetically.

"You'd better be." Loki kisses Clint passionately.

Clint kisses him back for a few seconds before he pulls away. "See you tomorrow." He goes to the door.

Loki's still pouting but he blows Clint a kiss. "Love you."

"Love you too." He winks and walks out the door, heading to S.H.I.E.L.D's tower as Loki falls back on the bed, hands behind his head, today was a good day.


	10. The bastard chapter

Clint returns to the tower, still feeling guilty about Steve, but luckily he has his mind taken off it quickly as the meeting has started without him, Nick glares as Clint sits down. "Where the fuck has you been?"

Clint rubs the back of his neck and sits back in his chair "I uh... I had something to do. Sorry about that."

Fury still glares, Steve tries to shatter the moment and subtly passes him a copy of the mission brief. "Well I'm sorry was my meeting interrupting you?" Fury snaps.

**Clint** whispers to himself 'A little bit, yes.' He takes the copy from Steve and shakes his head. "No, sir."

**"G**ood. Now back to business, we've learnt that these Peruvians are obviously up to something which is probably bad, and we know they will have tightened security, but as far as we know we are not compromised."

"Do we have to go back or will we just leave them...?" Clint asks with a confused look.

"We're taking satellite scan now, if we find weapons where you were posted then you'll have to go back, we need to find out their intent."

"Do I... Get to go back alone if we have to go back?" Clint asks and tries not to glance at Steve.

Steve looks away and Nick sighs. "I don't know, depends how serious the situation is, most likely... yes" He says dubiously. Clint grins widely and nods, Fury rolls his eye. "When you've quite finished getting over yourself..."

Clint clears his throat and hides his grin. "Anyway... What are we supposed to do now?"

"For now we wait until the scans come back, there'll be a brief in a week, until then there's not a lot we can do."

Clint nods and looks at the mission brief before running a hand through his hair. "Are we done?"

Nick sighs. "Yes. Dismissed." Clint grabs the file and makes his way to the door; Steve following him out nervously, Fury sighs and sits. "Sometimes I think he's too stubborn for his own good..."

Clint goes to his room, throws the file on the floor and falls on the bed, immediately dozing off and hoping no one would wake him up.

**Meanwhile in Asgard, **Odin is sitting in bed with his wife, eating toast, chewing an idea he'd had for a while. He turns to his wife "have you ever seen Loki with a girl?"

Frigga shakes her head. "No... Why do you ask?"

"Well I mean I've seen Thor with some girls... maybe that's why Loki's been so upset lately, maybe it's time he got married."

"Oh... But don't you think he's too young for marriage?"

"Not really, I mean all the other lords are sending off their girls as early as possible, there won't be any left." Odin chuckles at his own joke.

Frigga sighs. "Well... Talk to him first, maybe he doesn't need a woman, But you are the one who makes the decisions."

"That's true; perhaps I should go and talk to him..." Odin ponders.

"You should." She nods in agreement.

**Odin **Stands up and kisses his wife's forehead "I shall return soon." Frigga nods again with a soft smile as Odin leaves the room and goes down to where the brothers are. "Good morning boys."

"Good morning, father." both Thor and Loki stand up.

"Sit, sit." He sits with them. "Loki, I've been thinking..."

"Yes?" Loki says with a confused look.

**"**All the main lords and ladies are preparing their daughters; I was thinking it would be time for you to marry."

Loki gasps and Thor starts chuckling. "But... No... I don't want to. I'm not ready to get married."

**"S**ure you are" Odin pats him on the back. "Fine boy like you, any suitor would be lucky to have you! You are a prince after all, and every king needs a queen."

**"**Yes but... I don't... I'm not... I'm not ready for it... I'm not prepared..."

"Thor can help you there, he knows the ceremonies, even though he insists on seeing a mortal." Odin sighs. "But another time, another matter, I'll spread the word immediately!"

**"**No, no, no... I don't want to... Please." Loki gulps.

"Why on Asgard not?" he chuckles. "Surely you are not nervous of women!?"

"I uhm... I... I am nervous of women.. And I'm too young..."

**"T**here is nothing to fear the trick with women is-"

"Father, it's o.k. I'll tell him this stuff" Thor interrupts.

"Yes, yes I suppose so... too young?! Don't be silly! All the other lads your age are doing it, why there won't be any girls left!" He chuckles again.

**"**I don't want to get married right now... Perhaps in a few years..."

**"A** few years!? Tell me Midgard has not made you abandon all your regal duties!? In a few years you may be king!"

**Loki **sighs "I need time to think about it..." he sighs heavily again.

**"**Fine, fine, this is a good thing Loki." Odin pats him on the back and stands "We shall talk more later."

Loki nods and buries his face in his hands, Odin leaves, a smile on his face as Loki looks to Thor. "We have to stop him doing this." **Thor **nods in agreement, thinking of something to say. "He- he's not serious, you don't think he'll make me- I-" Loki breaks off.

**Thor **rests a hand on his shoulder. "I think I have an idea..."

**"Y**eah?" Loki looks over to him eagerly.

**"**Maybe you should get a lady... Or maybe you should leave Clint and try to be with a lady..."

**"**WHAT?! I couldn't do that!" Loki looks aghast.

**"**I said try!" He huffs.

**"**No, I can't- you know what I'm like when Clint leaves for a _week_, I couldn't - no! Besides do you know what happens on a- a-?" Loki hisses and spits the word 'honeymoon.'

**"**All I'm saying is maybe you should try and get a lady, maybe you'll like it. You've never tried it before."

"I don't want a woman!" he moans "I just want Clint!"

"I know you don't want, but try, maybe father will forget about it."

**"**Maybe." Loki sniffs a little. "What would I do? I don't know the first thing about women!"

"I'll teach you, but you need to tell Clint."

**"**But- You don't want me to just leave him?!"

**"**Just tell him about what he said and tell him you need some space."

**"**I- I don't know if I can. I- I don't know."

"I'm pretty sure he'll understand." Thor pats his back.

Loki leans into his brother and sighs. "He's coming over tomorrow." He says in small voice. "I'll tell him then."

**Thor **nods. "Okay, good."

**Loki **sighs and stands "I'll be in my room." He heads out of the living room as Thor nods and lies back, Loki goes to his room and lies face down on the bed, crying quietly.

Clint is asleep in the tower when someone knocks on the door, he wakes but he doesn't bother to open it.

**Another knock. **"Clint? You gonna open the door?" Tony says.

**"**No!" Clint yells sleepily.

**"**Real mature. What's up?"

**Clint **opens the door, looking sleepy and annoyed, eyes half open and hair messy. "What do you want, Tony? I was asleep, in case you didn't realise!"

Tony is obviously a little drunk. "Just came over to say 'hi'! There was something..."

**Clint **sighs heavily. "Great, drunk Tony. Come on; let me get you to your room."

**"**Dude, I'm fine!" Tony stops leaning on door and falls flat on his face.

**Clint **groans. "Well, it's three in the morning and that was loud." He leans over and throws Tony over his shoulder.

Tony smirks. "I _am_ loud, it's a gift."

**"**Shut up, Tony. You're gonna wake Steve up." He sighs and starts walking to the elevator."

**"**HELLLOOOO? CAPSICLE?! Nah, he's asleep."

"Shut up, Tony!" Clint whispers harshly.

**"M**ake me Katniss." Tony grins.

**Clint **sighs and gets in the elevator. "Goddamit, Tony."

**"W**hat? You pissed off at me _as well_?"

**"**What do you mean?"

Tony** counts the names on his fingers. "Y**ou're pissed off at Fury, Steve, Natasha, and now me; you got more anger issues than Bruce!"

**"**Oh shut up, you have no idea what's going on." Clint huffs and steps out of the elevator, still carrying Tony over his shoulder.

**"**So tell me Legolas!"

**Clint **walks into Tony's room. "Tony, you're drunk and you need to sleep".

**"**No, I don't, you're grumpy and you need to talk."

**"**No, Tony." He sits Tony on the bed.

**"A**www, please?" Tony tries puppy dog eyes.

"Shhh. Go to bed." Clint helps Tony take off his shoes.

"No!" He says like a three year old. "Talk to me Barton."

**"**Fine as long as you're gonna fall asleep." He pulls off Tony's shirt and tries, in vain, to get Tony's pyjama shirt on him.

**"I** will, pinkie swear!" He shuffles to get comfy.

**Clint **groans, ignores him and sits next to the drunk man. "Fine, I cheated on the person I love and fucked up. Big time."

**"W**ait. Steve? Seriously?"

**"**No! I didn't cheat on Steve! I cheated with Steve!" Clint groans again.

**"R**iiiiiight that I can kinda-" Tony gets detracted by something. "Hey, your hair looks kinda cute." He slurs.

**"**Thanks now go to sleep." He tries to push Tony back.

"No." Tony says stubbornly. "I am not sleepy."

**"**Tony, come on! I told you everything now go to sleep!"

"Not everything." Tony waggles his eyebrows. "Besides, you didn't pinke

swear, drink?" He tries to get up.

**"**No, thanks." He lies next to Tony, keeping him down.

**Tony p**ulls him into his arms for a hug. "Mmmmm... you're cosy."

**Clint **groans and rolls his eyes. "Okay, okay."

**Tony **giggles. "Warning; I get very huggy when I'm tipsy."

"It's obvious and I need to sleep, so don't make me punch you." Clint pulls away.

**Tony **pouts. "I just wanted a hug, why are you so mean Baton?"

**"**Because I was born mean." He walks to the door and turns off the lights.

**"**Cliiiiiiinnnntttttt..." Tony whines.

**"**Shhhh. Go to sleep, Tony." He sighs.

**"**I want someone to hug! CAAAAAAAAAAANNNN ANYBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDD DDDDDDDDYYYYY FIIIIINNNND MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE SOOOOMEBBOODDDY TOOOOOO HUUUUUUUGG?!" Tony sings badly.

**Clint **groans. "Fine!" He lies back next to him. "I'll hug you until you fall asleep." Clint pulls Tony in for a hug.

**Tony h**ugs Clint tightly. "Damn birdy you're comfy."

**"**Oh shut up." Clint closes his eyes, chuckling.

Tony rests his head into the nape of Clint's neck, interlocking their legs. "Much better."

**"**You better sleep." Clint mumbles.

**"**Maybe..." Tony pulls him closer, if that's possible. "What's my reward?"

**"**Not punching you in the face."

**"M**mmm... I could totally be into that." Tony sniggers and whispers in his ear.

**"**Oh god, I can't believe I was done with Steve and now it's you." He sighs.

**"**I get that a lot." He nibbles softly on Clint's ear.

**"**Tony!" Clint shuffles away uncomfortably.

**Tony g**rips him tightly. "You're not going anywhere, besides, you said you'd stay."

**"**I never said that!" Clint sighs.

"Did too." He whispers in Clint's ear and makes his voice low and gravely. "'I'll hug you till you fall asleep.' Last time I checked I was the opposite of asleep."

**"**Tony, seriously. I have a boyfriend."

**"**And you had Steve too. He sniggers.

**"**Yes but I don't want him or you." Clint sighs heavily.

**"O**h really? Haven't put up much of a fight so far." Tony allows a hand to wonder a little.

**Clint **grabs Tony's hand. "No, Tony. I'm not letting it happen again."

**Tony p**outs slightly. "But I'm druuunk, I won't remember..."

**"**I will remember and I don't want to do this so stop or I'll just leave you here; drunk and looking like a mess!" Clint says defensively.

**"**I do _not_ look like a mess, I look mighty damn fine."

**"**Yeah right!" Clint sorts.

**"**I do. Tip: I'm used to getting what I want." He smirks.

**"**Yeah well you're not getting me." Clint stands up and takes a few steps away from the bed.

Tony lies back on the bed, looking very casual. "Nothing to be afraid of, Legolas."

**"**Go to sleep, Tony." Clint sighs and goes to the door.

**"D**on't leave me Clint, you wouldn't do that..."

**"**Yes I would, Tony." Clint leaves the room and instead of going back to his

bed he sits against the door to make sure Tony falls asleep.

Tony stands up and goes to the phone. "Whatever, I'll call Pepper."

Clint sighs and rests his head on the door. "Yeah well, maybe Pepper can help you without being turned on." He whispers to himself.

Tony rings Pepper's number. "Hey Pepper, Clint won't do me and I'm drunk, come over? Hello? Pepper? Rude." Tony puts phone down. Clint tries not to laugh and shakes his head. "Cliiiiiinnnnnnntttttt..." Tony calls in a small whiney voice. Clint ignores him and waits for him to sleep. "Cliiiiiinnnnnntttttt..."

**Clint **sighs and walks back into the room. "Tonyyyyyyy."

**"**I wanna snuggle." Tony is sitting on the floor looking like a kicked puppy.

Clint extends his hand. "Okay, fine. But no sex. Or kissing."

**Tony **scowls. "Not even one kiss?"

**"**Nope!" Clint shakes his head.

"Pretty please?" Tony blinks up at him.

**"**No!"

**"**Fine!" Tony pulls him onto the floor and snuggles there instead. **Clint **sighs and lets him snuggle up to him. Tony holds him close, hand running through his hair. "Your hair's reallllly soft..."

**"**Okay, Tony. Just sleep."

"But I'm not sleepy..."

"I don't care." Everything goes quiet and Clint closes his eyes, waiting for Tony to sleep.

Tony tucks his head into Clint's neck, breathing becoming regular. Clint ignores Tony and keeps his eyes closed. "You know..." Tony says softly. "...Steve is a lucky guy." He says onto Clint's neck.

**"**And why is that?"

**"B**ecause..." He presses lips to Clint's neck. "You are cosy."

**Clint **takes a deep breath. "Tony... Stop it."

**"**I'm not doing anything." his lips are still on Clint's neck.

"Yes you are, you're pressing your lips against my neck. Stop it."

**"W**hy, don't you like it?" Tony doesn't stop.

**"**Yeah Tony, I don't like it." Clint sighs.

**"W**hat do you like?" Tony moves his mouth, sounding genuinely interested. "I've done some crazy stuff, what does birdy boy like?"

**"**Tony, if you don't stop. I'll just go, for real this time. I'm serious."

Tony pouts. "Aww come on, no one'll know, not even me, I'll have JARVIS delete the footage."

**"**No, Tony. No!" Clint snaps and pulls away.

Tony pouts again, sitting up. "I can't even get Pepper, what am I supposed to do?"

"Go to a bar and get a hot chick. I need to sleep cause I have work tomorrow." Clint stands up.

**"S**o? You've done this before Clint, you're a big boy, can't handle being a little sleepy?"

**"**Tony, I don't want to have sex with you, alright? Why can't you get it? Why are people into me when I've got a boyfriend?"

Tony shrugs. "Meh, I can see the appeal. Newsflash, when I get drunk I get laid."

**"**Newsflash buddy, you don't get laid with me."

**"W**hy not?" Tony huffs.

**"**Because I don't want to!" Clint sighs and walks out of the room.

Tony stands and gets the phone, ringing Pepper again... "Don't hang up! I

need to ask something. What was that maid's name again?"

Clint heads back to his room and groans, not bothering to change, before throwing himself back onto his bed, hugging the pillows and falling asleep again. But after only a few hours, Clint wakes up from a nightmare, so he goes for a walk around the complex, stopping to grab something to eat before returning to his room, accidentally slamming the door loudly with his foot. Meanwhile Tony has been to a bar, met a girl and gotten laid, so he was on his way back to his room when he hears the noise, he pauses before leaning back slowly. "Should I..."

Clint sits on his bed, watching a movie and eating ice cream, hoping no one, especially Tony, would interrupt him.

Tony knocks on Clint's door. "Hey lover boy!" **Clint **groans and ignores him so Tony continues. "Just FYI, I'm cool now, met a real nice girl and yeah, so, ha-ha, proved you wrong!" Steve walks out, confused by the noise.

"What the hell Tony? It's five AM!"

Clint hears Steve's voice and gets up, opening the door. "Okay, Tony. Go get laid with that girl."

**"B**een there, done that." Tony grins.

**"**Okay, go to your room! I'm not having sex with you!" Clint says, trying not to look at Steve.

Steve turns a little red as tony jerks his thumb at him. "Bet you'd say yes to Capsicle over here."

Clint chuckles, still not meeting Steve's eyes. "No, not even him." He says more harshly than he meant to.

Tony shrugs, holding up his fingers in a 'w'. "Whatever, I'll leave you two lovers to it!" He staggers off in the direction of his room.

Clint groans, watching Tony walk away as Steve looks over to Clint, slightly panicked. "I swear I did not tell him!"

Clint shrugs. "It doesn't matter, sorry for waking you up." He goes back into his room, trying not to slam the door.

"Good night." Steve adds as the door shuts, going back in his own room as Clint sits down to watch T.V. and eat ice cream.

In the morning Tony is rubbing his head as he walks into the cafeteria, he spots Clint and walks over, looking worried, Clint chuckles when he sees Tony. "Hey man, about last night, what happened? I remember you were there..."

Clint is still chuckling. "Uh yeah... You should probably watch the tape. Cause you kept molesting me." Clint raises an eyebrow, and continues chuckling.

**T**ony shrugs. "Yeah when I'm drunk I grope anything that moves, so sorry about that, nothing personal."

**"**Yeah, yeah don't worry about it." Clint smiles.

**Tony beams back.** "Anyways I'm paying for breakfast so..." He punches Clint's arm.

**"**No that's fine, really." Clint chuckles again.

**"**I insist."He pushes Clint to the queue. "What're you having?"

**"**Uh... I'll have what you're having." He rubs the back of his neck.

**"Excellent choice." Tony gets** bacon, eggs, toast, hash browns and beans for both of them. "Have the works."

**"**Okay... Thanks..." Clint grins and takes his food.

**"N**o problemo Legolas." Tony grins back and leads Clint to a free table.

**"**So, what happened to the girl who got you laid?"

**"U**mm... She took my bowtie, like they always do, I dry cleaned her clothes and put her in a car to send her home, well, Pepper sent her home."

Clint laughs and nods. "I see..."

Tony shrugs. "Easiest way to do things."

**"**Yeah, I'm sure it is."

**"**I know that from experience" Tony smirks.

Clint raises an eyebrow. "Well... I have to go talk to Fury... See you around?" He stands up.

"Yep, see you laters birdy boy!"

Clint rolls his eyes and goes to Fury's office where Fury is doing yet more paperwork, meaning Clint has the courtesy to knock before entering. "Hey boss!"

**"**Barton? Come in, sit down."

**Clint **sits on the chair opposite Fury's desk. "So... What happened?"

**"Well **we've looked at the scans, definitely something fishy going on, we're gonna need you, Steve and Natasha over there."

**Clint pouts. "**But... You said I was going alone!"

"That was before, this is big Barton, you couldn't- well the council say you can't handle it alone."

**Clint **sighs. "Fine!"

**"**So we need you outta here in a week."

**"**How long will it take?" Clint asks, confused.

"Depends, one month maybe two."

"No no no no no! But! No!"

**"**No buts' agent Barton, this is your job!"

**Clint **sighs heavily. "Fine!"

**Fury looks at him curiously.** "Do you want to work here?"

**"**Yes, fine, fine. When are we leaving?"

**"N**ext Monday, 5:00 AM."

**"**Fine." Clint stands up. "Anything else?"

**"**Nope, just don't forget to pack lots of arrows."

**"**Okay..." Clint turns on his heel and walks smartly out of the office.

Fury sighs again. "Why do I feel like I get older every time I see him?"

**Later that evening and back on Asgard, **Loki was pacing, unsure of what to do, he was nervous and it showed, and he kept glancing at the clock. "I don't know if I can do this Thor..."

**"**Yes you can!" Thor says and goes to his room as he hears Clint knock on the front door. Loki jumps, resolve crumbling as he opens it.

**"**Hey!" Clint smiles and gives him a peck on the lips. Loki doesn't say anything but pulls Clint in for a tight hug. Clint immediately notices something is wrong. "Loki? What's wrong?"

Loki shakes his head softly and clings tighter. "Please don't ask."

**"**Too late." Clint grins and leads him to the couch. **Loki **doesn't smile and allows himself to be pulled, looking at his feet. Clint takes a deep breath. "So... Tell me."

Loki sighs, blinking back tears and he looks into Clint's eyes. "We need- I need... some space, some time off." Loki's lip is wobbling as he looks away.

Clint looks confused, deep pangs of guilt forming in his stomach. "W-what? Why? What happened?"

Loki looks down at his feet. "I- I- I'm getting married."

**"**W-w-what?!" Clint snaps.

**Loki **flinches away. "My father has decided I'm old enough, and it's my duty as a prince." He's almost crying by the end of the simple sentence.

Clint sighs and nods. "Okay... Fine". He decides not to tell Loki about the mission.

**Loki **looks at the floor. "I'm sorry."

**"**It's fine. I understand."

**"**Do you?" Loki looks to Clint.

**"**It's fine... Loki, maybe we do need some space. You're gonna be with someone else and I'm gonna see someone else as well..."

"W-what?" Loki blinks at him.

**"**Yeah... You deserve someone better."

**"**No. I don't, I really don't" Loki whimpers softly.

**"**Yes, Loki you do. It's okay, you can see someone else."

Loki can't stop himself from crying as he nods. _I don't want someone else._

Clint pulls him for a hug. "It's okay..." **Loki h**ugs him tightly as though if he grips him hard enough Clint won't have to leave. **"**Don't cry, it's gonna be alright." Clint whispers. Loki shakes his head softly and doesn't move, Clint can't bear it any more so he pulls away and kisses Loki's forehead, it takes Loki a moment to let go of Clint, but eventually he pulls back, looking once again at his feet. "I'll see you soon, okay?" Clint says as he stands up. Loki nods again, wiping his eyes, not wanting Clint to go.

Clint holds back his tears leaves quickly, shutting the door quietly. Upon hearing the sound the spell that kept Loki on his feet snapped and he crumpled to the floor, He curls up in a little ball and cries.

Man, I really didn't want to upload this chapter today, what with Doctor Who and everything, so this has come a little extra painfully for me, so I'm sorry about that, but I figure you can not read if you want to, I'm also really sorry about this, but just think I've had to wait three weeks longer than you lot, there's gonna be about a month's hiatus, 'cos my writing partner is on vacation, so I need more notes before I can make more chapters :/. Sorry. I will be uploading various other surprises I have in store though, so keep an eye out, mission briefs is one thing I can confirm will be coming out ;) So hold on, this is harder on me than you :(.

P.s. The chapter name, well I do not like this chapter and it took me ages to write cos I'd start crying so it became known as 'the bastard chapter' and then I couldn't think up another name, so...


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